iZettle raises €40 Million


    We share an office with the Finnish branch of iZettle and I think we need to start charging more for rent.

    The company just announced today that they’ve just raised an impressive €40 million in Series C funding in a round led by Zouk Capital, with participation from Dawn Capital and Intel Capital, and Series A and B investors Creandum, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Northzone and SEB Private Equity. The credit and banking institutions that have some stake in the card payments-for-smartphones solution also participated, including American Express, MasterCard and Banco Santander.

    iZettle was founded in Stockholm in 2011 as sort of a European Chip and Pin competitor to America’s Square, giving people and small businesses a device that plugged into their smartphone or tablet allowing them to charge physical credit cards and take payments.

    Since then the company has has battled with Visa Electron, the form of debit card payments popular in Northern Europe, which forced them to build a new bluetooth device to accept payments. Visa, not a stakeholder in iZettle, stopped allowing payments through iZettle due to a policy issue.

    Now with their unattached device, iZettle is starting to feel closer to a trendy Point of Sale option for small businesses. With iZettle there’s no hassle of receipts, although it’s possible to send receipts by email. The company charges no set-up fees, instead charging a fairly competitive rate on each transaction.

    “Building on its early successes in Europe, we’re excited about iZettle’s growth plans, and believe this round will give them the fire power required to execute on the next phase of expansion,” says Nathan Medlock from Zouk Capital, who joined iZettle’s board. “At the core of Zouk’s investment thesis is the emergence of what we call resource intelligence: recognising that not only should we be doing more with less, but that resources, process and systems are more connected than ever. iZettle is a great example of this concept in action.”

    iZettle’s European footprint includes U.K., Spain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. An interesting development is that iZettle has also opened up in Mexico and Brazil, which suggests this funding round will help them expand their footprint.

    Note – this article has been updated to correct Nathan Medlock’s name, and to clarify that Visa stopped their functionality through of iZettle’s previous solution due to a policy decision.