- Finom has recently joined our community but has already reached important milestones attracting the interest of international investors. We asked country manager Antonio La Mura to tell us about its growth and new projects.
What does FINOM do, when was it born and to whom is it addressed?
FINOM is an international innovation-driven start-up, currently providing online financial services in France, Germany, and Italy. It is designed by entrepreneurs and freelancers, with the aim of being the business personal assistant of entrepreneurs and freelancers across Europe. This is why we blend together finance management, invoicing, and banking. FINOM is based in Amsterdam and it was founded in 2019. Since then its mission has been to simplify the life of entrepreneurs and freelancers, who are the economic backbone of Europe. We think that business finance should be as easy as using a smartphone, but quite often the business management process is far more complicated than it should be. FINOM is on the market to simplify things: bringing together advanced technologies to business management processes, allowing entrepreneurs and freelancers to spend time and resources only on the growth of their business and for their private life.
How much did you grow from zero to now?
We are still a start-up, but we experienced some significant growth in the last year. In Italy we onboarded more than 6000 clients for our e-invoicing tool, while Germany and France started strong with local pre-orders. But it is too early to share the exact numbers for these two countries as we opened up for business only a few weeks ago. Investors are giving us resources and trust: we are focusing on building the best fintech product we can and this involves creating a strong team. Currently FINOM’s global team is formed up by more than 80 people, working remotely (and safely) from a number of different countries. We are a truly international company.
How much have you collected so far, in how many steps? Who are your main investors?
In 2020 we raised money two times for a total of €16.8 million. The first round was in April with a seed investment of €6.5 million. The second one was a larger round – a pre series A investment – that gathered €10.3 million. Some of our main investors are: Target Global, General Catalyst, Cogito Capital, Entree Capital, Avala Capital, Tal Capital, and AdFirst. There is a real interest from international investors on FINOM. This for two main reasons. First, we do not focus on a single country because we are aware of the common pain points of entrepreneurs in the whole Europe, and we are building a product that can fit all countries. Second, we have a really strong team with many years of experience in Fintech. Our founders are in fact the same team who already built Modulbank, one of the most profitable and fast growing B2B online banks in Russia, and the whole management team has hands-on experience in managing real personal businesses across different fields and industries.
After Italy you have reached Germany. Why in Germany? What targets of penetration on this market have you set yourself?
Germany is the largest economy in Europe, with a strong presence of SMEs and professionals and with one of the highest European adoption rates of fintech solutions. Since this month we are officially live in France, a market which is similar to Italy. Also in 2021 our Italian customers will be able to open a business account too. Those three countries are the largest economies in continental Europe. They are the key markets for reaching our ambitious goals: 1.000.000 onboarded B2B European clients in 5 years. This is why we do not have a specific target for Germany or for other specific markets: to us Europe is a single market.
What is the difference between your offer in Germany and Italy? How will the one in Italy evolve?
The main difference is about the features available to our users in each country, but our overall offer is the same: we want to build the best product for entrepreneurs and professionals in managing the finances of their business. That is why in Germany we have activated our full product with banking and invoicing right from the start, while in Italy we offer for now electronic invoicing only. Our aim is to have a single offer across markets, keeping the same overall experience, but with specific features that are tailored according to local regulations and needs.
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