Flatpay secures USD 47 mln Series B funding

In previous fund raises, Flatpay had secured just under USD 21 million before this Series B, and with this new funding, it’s now valued at well over USD 100 million. The company plans to use the money to expand into new markets in Europe and to build out more products alongside the point-of-sale and card terminals that it currently sells. Some of these products might involve AI but only as an enabler of certain features, rather than a core service.

Offering simpler payment solutions to European merchants

There are more than 24 million SMBs in Europe; point-of-sale terminals in the region number more than 17 million; and there are hundreds of other payments services — including Stripe, Adyen, SumUp, and PayPal, as well as smaller players like SilkPay — all targeting the same customers as Flatpay, but investors think there is a lot of potential in the startup, enough to bet early and strong, even in the current economic climate.

Officials from Flatpay said they tackle the market gap in three key ways. Firstly they target a specific customer base: merchants processing over USD 100,000 annually, excluding multi-location chains or franchises. Secondly, the company aligns its payment solutions with this target size, offering simple, flat fees of 0.99% for terminal transactions and 1.49% for POS purchases, without minimum charges or fees for international cards. This model sometimes leads to losses on transactions but drives increased usage and revenue. Lastly, Flatpay relies solely on live sales visits, eschewing online or virtual sales channels, to maintain a focus on personal interaction and support.

As with payments hardware and software, security can be a hard sell to customers. Flatpay found that the only way it could reliably seal deals was by selling in person. And the only way that salespeople can sell in person is by understanding the products really well. Around half of Flatpay’s 200 employees are on the sales side, according to Rasmus Busk, split between those who help arrange sales visits and handle support and those who visit customers in person.