French payments fintech Qonto raises €486m, hints at acquisitions

Qonto, a fintech that freelancers and SMEs with banking, has raised €486m in a Series D funding, nudging its valuation to €4.4bn.

This latest round is jointly led by new investors Tiger Global and TCV, in addition to eight other new contributors: Alkeon, Eurazeo, KKR, Insight Partners, Exor Seeds, Guillaume Pousaz (Checkout.com’s CEO and founder), Gaingels and Ashley Flucas. 

Existing investors Valar, Alven, DST Global and Tencent also participated. 

Launched in France in 2017, Qonto says its ambition is to become the primary banking platform for 1 million European SMEs and freelancers by 2025.

The Paris-based firm is the latest European fintech to see a huge boost to its valuation less than a year after becoming a unicorn - a startup valued at more than $1bn in the private markets.

It offers everyday banking, financing, bookkeeping and spend management tools. It has c. 220,000 clients across four markets (France, Germany, Italy, and Spain). 

Whils not technically a bank, it has since 2018 oeperated with a licence to be a payment institution from the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution. 

Qonto said in a media statement that it would be expanding its product with the new cash as well as looking at potential acquisitions. In addition it will be looking to expand in its four markets (Germany, Italy and Spain) where it has quadrupled its revenue over the past two years.  

Alexandre Prot, co-founder and CEO of Qonto says the new Series D funding round will help accelerate its “hyper-growth trajectory”.

This funding round reveals the incredible dynamism of the French and European Tech ecosystem. We count on policymakers to continue their efforts to ensure entrepreneurship can succeed, leading to European and global champions that deliver innovation,” he said.