Recently, there has been an increased focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the fintech world, and the growth of Swedish startups is one example of this. Mynt, which built an AI-based platform for corporate card and spend management for small and medium-sized businesses, has raised €22 million ( Completed a $23 million round. .
London-based investment firm Vor Capital, which previously backed Mynt, is leading the round, with other previous backers CNI and Incore also participating. Mynt has currently raised approximately €50 million, and our understanding is that this funding could value it at around €200 million ($210 million).
Mynt began when two of its co-founders, Barczar Sahlin (CEO) and Johan Obermeyer (CPO), were colleagues at Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson. Ironically, given the company's technical focus, managing expenses was an absolute pain. Toward the next generation of data communications.
Although they worked for some of Europe's largest companies, their past experience working in and with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) shows that the situation is even more dire for small and medium-sized enterprises, which are often overlooked when it comes to IT services. I knew.
“I also experienced the difficulties of issuing cards and managing expenses, and those pain points were the driving force behind Mynt,” Sahlin said in an interview. When Mynt first started in 2018, there were few options, especially for small and medium-sized businesses, he said. “For us, it was about being between banks and accounting systems and providing solutions that solve problems for small and medium-sized businesses.”
Together with Magnus Weidberg, a systems engineer who has worked in a variety of financial businesses, they launched Mynt to address that gap. We started with business in Northern Europe, and with this round we have begun expanding into the UK. and other markets.
Mynt's business currently offers corporate cards with major partner Visa. (Mr. Sahlin said he considers American Express a “competitor.”)
In addition to card services, we also offer spend management tools and automated integrations with major accounting apps. Among the features the company offers to small business customers are a way to set up and automatically manage out-of-pocket expenses, automatic receipt matching, virtual cards, and personal spending limits to adjust spending to fit your budget. , a mobile app to manage your spending on the go, and more. Sahlin said it provides analytical tools to help customers better understand how their budgets are being used, and relies heavily on AI for automation.
Interestingly, it also incorporates financial functions. Mynt has built APIs that can be integrated with third parties to power card issuance services for enterprise resource planning businesses, banks, fleets and fuel providers.
Another key point is that the Nordic ecosystem is different “in terms of accounting and payment rails,” so Mynt initially focused its efforts solely on that region, Sahlin said. The company's products are designed for companies with 2 to 500 employees, and the current average customer size is 50 users.
Mynt faces large competitors outside its region and beyond.
Pleo, based in Denmark, has a proven track record in expense management for small and medium-sized businesses. When the company raised $200 million in 2021, it was valued at $4.7 billion. It is not clear how the valuation has changed since then. The last funding the company received was $42 million for debt on its credit products earlier this year.
But Fortnox (coincidentally, like Mynt, a play on the reference to where money is kept) — which also builds expense management and other financial tools for small businesses, is publicly traded. And the valuation is in the $4 billion range — Mynt is actually a partner. Mynt is enhancing its corporate card services.
In the U.S., there are many companies including Final (raised $200 million in debt and equity in September 2024), Emburse, Brex, which may aim for an IPO, and Ramp (raised $150 million in April 2024). of companies are pursuing small business opportunities. However, big numbers don't always mean hockey sticks. Earlier this year, Brex went through a significant leadership change and layoffs/restructuring following a period of too rapid growth.
While Mynt may face many competitors, there is an argument to be made that there is room for more than a few companies to enter the space.
Expense management remains one of the biggest pain points in the world of work. Accounting departments spend a lot of time making sure expenses are correctly itemized and approved, but employees are not accountants and can sometimes get these things wrong.
The SME sector faces further challenges. Because accounting departments are small and sometimes even non-existent (you're accounting, sales, IT, and administration), there's room for solutions that automate time. -Requires a lot of effort such as expense management. And because small businesses are usually thought of second-guess when it comes to building new, more efficient services.
There are over 26 million small and medium-sized enterprises in the European Union alone, accounting for approximately 99% of all businesses. This means that the 12,000 small businesses that Mynt currently has on its books are just a tiny fraction of its impact on the market. A report published last year by Pymnts details this. In the United States, a developed market, only about a quarter of small businesses use corporate cards. This means that there remains a largely untapped market.