Vibrant, the Danish app that turns Android mobile devices into points of sale, has raised a €4 million seed round led by byFounders, with Luminar Ventures participating.
Vibrant’s mission is “to make monetary merchant-customer transactions easier and more accessible than ever before.”
According to Visa, 52% of SMEs in Europe do “not engage in card payments whatsoever.” With cash as its main competitor, Vibrant “provides digital tools that enable businesses to pivot away from card terminals, coins, and notes, ensuring that small business vendors are equipped to inexpensively and simply enact sales.”
Whilst card terminals can take several months to be delivered, Vibrant can be “downloaded instantly for use with Android devices (which are both affordable and constitute 80% of all mobiles in Europe according to the European Commission).”
Having co-founded Vibrant in Copenhagen in 2020, Kasper Krog (CEO) and Kåre Sørensen (CPO) have “built a multi-national team of 25 employees.”
The startup, whose transactions are currently increasing 70% month-on-month, will use this investment “to grow its customer base and prioritize extensions into new markets that harbor millions of untapped SMEs.”
Vibrant was the overall winner of Mastercard Lighthouse’s FINTIV program in 2022, “as well as one of four Nordic and Baltic fintechs supported by Visa.”
Vibrant CEO Kasper Krog comments:
“Digital payments now dwarf cash as the default type of transaction. This immense growth of contactless payments was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected many small businesses terribly. As these companies find their feet again, we want to empower them with the digital tools they need. We believe in liberating merchants from the legacy of cash and expensive card machines. Mobile devices can act as pocket terminals for any small trader, which is the next chapter in the future of the cashless society.”
Eric Lagier, Founder and Managing Partner at byFounders, adds:
“We are delighted to contribute further to the impressive growth of Vibrant. The process of customer-business transactions is becoming more and more streamlined and Vibrant’s easy-to-use, tap-to-phone app and simple pricing ensure that businesses can concentrate on providing top-quality goods and services. They are empowering the next generation of merchants.”
Daniel Karsberg, Partner at Luminar Ventures explains further:
“We couldn’t be more passionate about Vibrant’s journey and potential, as a company poised to disrupt the market’s established incumbents. The fact that not one Vibrant user has returned to using card terminals speaks for itself.”
As noted in the update, Vibrant is the app that “transforms Android devices into points of sale.”
Replacing cash and expensive card terminals, Vibrant provides “a solution that makes merchant-customer transactions easier, more accessible, and more affordable than ever before.”
Co-founded in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2020 by Kasper Krog (CEO) and Kåre Sørersen (CPO), the company “has 25 employees and has raised €5.5M to-date.”
