France-based digital bank Qonto has secured $115 million through a Series C investment round led by Tencent and DST Global, in order to help it further penetrate key markets, implement new features to tailor its products and services to specific market segments, and hire new staff members. The company currently employs 200 workers and plans to increase its staff count to 300 this year.
Qonto is an all-digital bank that serves small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs), freelance workers, and startups. It provides expense management, company card issuing and cash flow services to around 65,000 accounts throughout the world. Qonto’s management recently announced its plans to expand its business operations to Germany, after introducing services in Spain and Italy.
Last year, Qonto handled transactions worth an estimated €10 billion, which is significantly greater compared to only €3.5 billion in transfers processed the previous year.
Existing investors Valar and Alven also joined Tencent and DST in Qonto’s latest investment round. Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder at UK-based Fintech TransferWise, and Adyen CFO Ingo Uytdehaage also made contributions to the round.
Notably, Qonto was the recipient of the first investment by billionaire Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures in France during its Series A round carried out in 2017.
Qonto helps companies save time by offering streamlined account opening and an improved day-to-day user experience, unlimited transaction history, easy accounting exports, and easy-to-use expense management tools.
This development has come just a few days after another popular French startup, Lydia, acquired €40 million in capital from the Chinese internet giant Tencent.