French challenger bank Qonto has closed a new investment round to boost its customer numbers, but not like you may think.
Other challenger banks like Monzo, Revolut and Nubank have all attracted millions of customers by going for the average Joe on the street.
That is not what Qonto is doing. Instead, it has positioned itself as a challenge bank for small and medium-sized businesses and freelancers. It has so far attracted 65,000 companies across France, Italy, Spain and Germany, according to TechCrunch.
It is this customer base that the company now plans to grow with its new $115m Series C investment round. The Chinese conglomerate Tencent and venture capital investor DST Global led the investment round. Both Tencent and DST Global have previously backed Brazilian challenger bank Nubank.
Qonto’s new round was also supported by existing investors Valar and Alven TransferWise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus and Adyen CFO Ingo Uytdehaage also participated in the round.
The new round comes almost one and a half years after Qonto collected €20m in its Series B round in September 2018 and €10m in its Series A in 2017.
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