Swan Raises $ 18.7 Million to Provide Integrated Banking Services
French startup Swan has raised an $ 18.7 million Series A (€ 16 million) round of funding led by Accel. The company provides a banking platform as a service for other products and services.
Embedded finance is a big trend in recent years in fintech. Companies that operate in this space provide financial services to other companies. These clients act as a distribution channel for financial services, with the integrated finance company acting as the backbone of all things finance.
In this way, some companies that do not wish to manage financial services can still offer financial services. And other companies may specialize in API-based products that unlock new functionality for their customers.
Swan partners with SaaS companies, marketplaces and even other fintech startups so that they can offer labeled banking features. For example, you can take advantage of Swan’s API to generate accounts and cards using API calls.
Existing investors Creandum and Bpifrance also participated in today’s round table. Some of Swan’s clients include Agicap, Alma, Expensya, Fintecture, Mon Bel Appart, Pennylane and Ride.
When it comes to creating an account, each account comes with its own IBAN. End customers can access these accounts using an online banking interface designed by Swan. Swan customers can choose to design their own interface in addition to Swan data.
When it comes to cards, Swan allows you to generate both virtual and physical cards. They work with Apple Pay and Google Pay. Swan customers can limit certain features, such as ATM withdrawals, or let their customers directly control their cards.
The startup has an electronic money license and can offer services throughout the European Economic Area. It also manages regulatory requirements, such as identity verification and fraud detection. Solving these issues alone is a big selling point, as Swan customers don’t have to deal with regulatory requirements on their own.
With today’s funding round, the company plans to expand into Germany with a new office in early 2022. Swan will compete with Berlin-based banking as a service company Solarisbank. But Swan also plans to allow developers to start using the company’s APIs directly with a self-service model.
“Our ambition for this funding round is to offer banking functionalities with a local flavor, specialized for a multitude of local EU markets: Ideal in the Netherlands, Ibans starting with DE in Germany, Capital deposit accounts in France , And much more ! Co-founder and CEO Nicolas Benady said in a statement.
As you may have noticed, fintech has become a very active vertical for tech startups. With its B2B2C strategy, Swan doesn’t need to build a super finance app to become the primary financial point of contact with millions of users. And there is a good chance that many people are already using Swan services without realizing it.