Hero secures EUR 11.3 million in funding

In a bid to expand its operations and support companies facing working capital issues, Hero, a fintech firm based in Paris, France, secured EUR 11.3 million in an all-equity funding round. Since its inception, the company has been working on developing a banking product for small businesses that aims to substitute traditional banking services, including fund management, payment acceptance, and obtaining a credit line.

Considering the current challenges that small companies face when starting their operations, Hero intends to aggregate technological and financial services into a single product that customers can leverage to send, receive, and hold money with multiple accounts and IBANs. In addition, the fintech provides payment cards that assist companies in their daily tasks.

To not rely on a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) partner, Hero developed its own core banking system, enabling retailers to choose it as their payment solution using an API, a plugin for an ecommerce platform, or payment links. Moreover, the company creates a risk-scoring engine that allows it to assess a client by leveraging both public and private data. Hero then determines whether it plans to offer financing to its customers.

Prior to the current capital injection, Hero received EUR 12.4 million in funding in July 2022 for its full-stack payment solution. At that time, the company focused on building a solution that could serve the needs and requirements of the B2B small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector, with it being adapted so that it could manage all sales channels and payment types for any company size. With the newly acquired funds, Hero intends to maintain its focus on developing in-house solutions that can serve the needs of small businesses. According to TechCrunch, the company is currently waiting for regulatory approval from Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) for its payment services.

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