Fintech startup Open Payments raises €3m to offer B2B payment solutions

Swedish fintech startup Open Payments has raised €3 million in funding to provide payment solutions for the B2B market.

Founded in 2017, the Stockholm-based startup aims to take the growing open banking concept to the B2B sector, offering more control and flexibility over financial choices and data.

Along with the startup’s existing investors, venture capital (VC) firm Industrifonden led Open Payment’s latest funding round with Sony Financial Ventures and Global Brain participating.

Open Payments plans to use the funding to scale up its business internationally, growing its customer base and collaborating with other industry players. It also plans to add more product offerings and develop the platform this year.

“We see an increasing demand from leading accounting and ERP systems and other financial systems that want to utilize Open Banking in their products in a secure and reliable way.”

Louise Brandt, Co-founder and CEO of Open Payments

Co-founder and CEO Louise Brandt explained that there is a high demand for an open banking system worldwide. Open Payments has an advantage as one of the first open banking startups to enter the B2B market.

Anna Ljungdahl, senior investment director at Industrifonden, said the VC firm was “happy” to keep supporting Open Payments.

“There are great opportunities with Open Banking since companies don’t need to be banks to provide secure banking functionality within their own systems,” Ljungdahl said.

“What they do need though is a player like Open Payments whose technology lowers the entry barriers to these opportunities.”

Sony Financial Ventures director Junji Nakamura said open banking is still in its infancy in Japan. Nakamura’s company was “inspired” by the development of open banking in the Nordics, adding that the investment in Open Payments was a “strategic decision” to introduce the startup’s technology to more markets.

Open Payments is built upon the PSD2 — a European regulatory framework that makes it imperative for banks to share account information and payment initiation services available to third parties. The directive opens up the financial service sector to non-bank players, allowing the development of novel financial solutions.

Licensed by Sweden’s financial supervisory authority, Finansinspektionen, the platform supports Payment Initiation and Account Information for corporate and private accounts.

Its cutting-edge technology allows its business clients to move online banking functionalities to their respective systems and interfaces. End users can authorise and conduct secure, direct transactions without logging in to their online banking accounts.