kevin. raises $65M to bring A2A payments to POS terminals
kevin., the Lithuanian fintech startup providing an advanced A2A (account-to-account) payment infrastructure to replace costly card transactions, today announces that it has secured $65 million in Series A funding.
The round was led by Accel, with participation from Eurazeo and all existing investors, including OTB Ventures, Speedinvest, Open Ocean, and Global Paytech Ventures. Additional investors in the round include Harry Stebbings, Founder of 20VC, Ilkka Paananen, CEO & Co-founder of Supercell, Amitabh Jhawar, Ex-CEO of Venmo, and other angel investors.
The Series A funding comes just six months after the company secured its $10 million seed round and brings kevin.’s total funding to $77 million. Since the seed round, the team has now grown to more than 170 employees working from 30 countries and is set to almost double by 2023.
Pavel Sokolovas, COO and Co-founder at kevin., said: “When you have a game-changing product, time is the most important asset, and our new investor Accel values time just as we do. We have closed a huge $65M round in just two months between the NDA and a signed Investment agreement. We are very happy to work with Accel, and that synergy and looking in the same direction helped deliver such a smooth and fast round closing. We are looking forward to achieving big goals together.”
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Vilnius, kevin. has successfully taken advantage of the new opportunities that open banking has brought. The company has a clear mission — to offer innovative and convenient payment solutions that remove unnecessary intermediaries in the payment process. kevin. has already proven itself as the leader in web and in-app A2A payments in the European Economic Area, where it currently has the broadest PSD2 bank API coverage on the market. Recently, the startup has also stepped into POS terminal payments in physical stores by introducing the first-ever NFC account-to-account payments solution with a seamless user experience that is comparable to a card payment experience.
The uniqueness of kevin.’s A2A in-store payments solution lies in the fact that it does not require any changes on the merchant’s technical side: it uses existing POS terminal infrastructure and widely used and most intuitive NFC payment technology.
Tadas Tamosiunas, CEO and Co-founder at kevin., said: "We are thrilled to receive such overwhelming support from everyone around us. Bringing Accel on board will help us achieve great results and grow even more. We will use this investment to continue expanding our international team of experts and developing products that are changing the payment industry.
We have big plans for the future. I am confident that our full suite of next-generation infrastructure for web, mobile and in-store payments will help businesses gain a competitive edge. Also, given the fact that the implementation of the A2A in-store payments solution is quick and cost-effective, we forecast its rapid scale: by the end of this year, we aim to secure 35% coverage of POS payment terminals across Europe and seek to achieve over 85% by the end of 2023, which is equivalent to the current coverage of major card schemes."
Luca Bocchio, Partner at Accel, said: “Tadas, Pavel and the kevin. team are powering the future of payments with their next-generation payments infrastructure. Offering a fast, seamless payment experience with reduced costs and increased authentication rates, the time for A2A payments is now and kevin. has already had impressive momentum with its offering. With the launch of its unique POS payments product, the opportunity ahead is huge, and we’re looking forward to partnering with the team on their journey!”
Chloé Giard, Eurazeo Investment Director, said: “We have been following all the innovations in the account-to-account payment market for a while, and we have been truly impressed by kevin.’s uniqueness and global ambition. Since 2018, they have laid the technological foundation for a European-wide payment infrastructure scheme, changing the game in terms of speed, transparency, and fees. Over the past few months, kevin.’s commercial hypergrowth has proved the strength of its value proposition.”