Juni, a ‘vertical’ neobank for e-commerce and online marketing companies, raises $ 21.5 million – TechCrunch

European e-commerce is expected to grow 30% this year, to $ 465 billion, and it is creating a new ecosystem of services designed to meet the needs of e-commerce merchants. In the latest Juni development, Designed specifically for businesses selling online, Neobank closed Series A for $ 21.5 million in just 12 weeks after its official launch.

Series A is co-directed by partners of DST Global and Felix Capital are also followed by former backers Cherry Ventures and other early investors. Gothenburg-based Juni had previously raised 2 million euros ($ 2.4 million) in fundraising rounds while still in waitlist mode in November.

Part of the reason the latest funding came in so quickly is that Juni took on a very short three-month lifespan. Juni co-founder and CEO Samir El-Sabini told TechCrunch the startup has signed up for 300. Company on 3,000 waiting lists. This represents approximately 500% of customer growth each month. According to him, the customers were mainly those who sold their inventory. A drop shipper who sells on behalf of retailers. Performance marketers who have moved on to selling products.

Another reason is that Juni performs so well in terms of both investors and clients, because Juni builds it to identify, understand, and modify.

El-Sabini and his two co-founders Anders Oresdal (CTO) and Jonathan Sanders (COO) all have backgrounds in e-commerce and fintech (in fact, one was previously a startup). I was sacrificing Pleo, but this week I announced some big fundraising rounds. The other two worked for different cost management startups. So they know the shortcomings of many banking services when it comes to providing services to run their business online.

As El-Sabini explained, traditional banks have long sought out SMEs as customers, but they never really understood the dynamics, challenges and peculiarities of running an e-commerce business, and therefore these companies.

“What we do is provide insight and knowledge in the e-commerce industry,” he said. “And because we understand all cost centers, we can keep our risk profile low. We understand what Taboola is and we know Shopify. El-Sabini generally said that business enterprises distribute money through a variety of services such as ad networks, payment gateways, and banks.

“That’s why we offer a unified view of all these dashboards. Then we get information based on all of their activities and provide the “right number”. This gives you an idea of ​​how much cash flow, deposits, and withdrawals your business has for all of these services, so you know how much you need. Invest or use in advertising in other areas, especially to attract more customers.

“It’s all about rewards and the liquidity of advertising costs,” says El-Sabini.

He added that cash flow also works with the payment cards Juni offers as part of its service.

“I need a card with high spending restrictions.” This is mainly about how to spend a month’s money and pay it back late (because of how long it takes revenue to clear the payment gateway, etc.). Without limit, your card can be declined when you use it to pay for marketing or advertising campaigns.

“If the card is rejected, the advertising campaign will not work,” he said. Because Google and others usually demote you with algorithms when this happens. “The old companies have seen a lot of downturns, so they changed cards every quarter. Of course, the organization is complicated and you have time to develop your e-commerce business. It’s not something you want to spend.

El-Sabini also clarifies that in the event of a problem, the customer service representative speaks the same language as the customer, which allows him to approach and resolve the problem appropriately.

To sum up all of the above, Juni sympathized with the others simply by creating the kind of bank the founder wanted in the previous business, and El-Sabini was “huge, full of money and hope.” This resulted in what we called “growth”. A good example: According to a press release sent in last week’s article, Juni had 250 customers across Europe, but by the time we spoke, that number had passed 300.

There is something else interesting about what Juni is doing. This probably indicates a larger trend in FinTech that is worth noting.

Online banking has made significant inroads into the financial world, providing consumers with a broader, more modern user experience, more personalized and often better rates than existing banks. .. Huge review, great customer growth, And now slowly the first of them Open to the public ..

Nowadays, a second wave of very powerful neobanks is emerging, which are not very broadly targeted and aim for more concrete and vertical opportunities. trade like Juni.

In this regard, there really are many FinTech startups currently targeting small businesses using banking services. They are in particular Finom, smart, hatch, Novo and many others. Especially within the e-commerce neobank, there are also competitions with the following companies. Wallet Viva, Incard (it doesn’t seem to start yet), Yang, and maybe try to meet the same people as Juni.

So far it stands out for how quickly it has been adopted and how they have decided to own this space. This will allow Juni to move to a wider product line to meet more needs for running an e-commerce business, including more types of credit products to maintain cash flow. This is one of the reasons why well-known investors like DST are interested.

“In just three months, Juni has already proven that it has the potential to become the next big tech solution for traders around the world. This product solves clear problems and takes the time of digital entrepreneurship. We are echoing our clients by bringing them home, ”Felix Capital investors Joseph Pizzolato and Susan Lin said in a joint statement. “As investors, we look for signs of ‘customer love’ and ‘digital clues’ in every investment. The waitlist of over 3,000 SMEs for Juni products is better than ever. We we connect with the team quickly and strongly believe in their vision. By paying attention to detail and understanding your clients’ needs, you may be in the ideal position to win in this market. “

“Samir, Anders, Jonathan and the team continue to amaze us,” added Sophia Ventures, partner at Cherry Ventures. “Since Juni’s beta, they’ve seen a very impressive monthly trading volume over such a short period of time. They are also world class in compliance, finance, technology and marketing. We have fostered a deep commitment to team building and building credibility with the community. They are fast becoming a reliable financial companion for e-commerce entrepreneurs around the world. It was just the start and I couldn’t be more excited to continue supporting this team. “