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Payments and financial solutions are two-a-penny at this point, but mostly for online e-commerce. What about physical stores? In 2023 Qomodo, a Milan-based “all-in-one” payment methods aggregator for physical merchants, came out with a €34.5 million ($36.9 million) pre-seed round (mostly debt), which we covered, to expand the BNPL model into other categories.
It’s now raised €13.5 million ($13.9 million) in a Series A funding. The round was co-led by RTP Global and LMDV Capital, with participation from Proximity Capital, Primo Capital as well as other notable investors including the founders of FACEIT, Fiscozen and Freetrade (the latter through Lumen Ventures). That means it’s now raised €48 million in total ($49.6 million — so, €18 million of equity, €30 million of credit facility).
Founded in 2023 by entrepreneurs Gianluca Cocco and Gaetano de Maio, Qomodo claims to now serve 2,500 physical merchants, mostly in Italy.
The idea is that Qomodo lets small businesses improve their cash flow and increase revenue with a BNPL solution which lets consumers make flexible, interest-free installments on items purchased in-store.
This means retailers are more likely to make sales, while at the same time reducing the credit risk from customers.
Speaking to TechCrunch Gianluca Cocco, CEO and Co-Founder of Qomodo, said: “Our software basically simplifies the merchant transaction to help them reduce payment fees and streamline their operation. You can say that we are digitizing SMBs that have been left behind by FinTech in the physical world.”
“It’s a sort of 360 degrees approach,” he added. “We have a BNPL and POS solution but we are also going to launch other banking products like cards and bank accounts.”
He said they are in a space where FinTech is not that present, or not at all: “Because this is about physical merchants. Usually, financial institutions provide personal loans and traditional lending products, or banking products. So those are our actual main competitors.”
Louis Dussart, VP, Europe, RTP Global, commented in a statement: “Italy has been waiting for a B2B fintech champion and that’s why we are delighted to back Qomodo. There’s a huge opportunity, given Italy’s significant domestic market and standing as the ‘nation of SMBs’, to revolutionize and enhance in-store shopping experiences – for both retailers and consumers.”
Qomodo has already partnered with retailers such as Decathlon, Calzedonia, Moschino, Samsonite, Nike, and Pandora.
Mike Butcher (M.B.E.) is Editor-at-large of TechCrunch. He has written for UK national newspapers and magazines and been named one of the most influential people in European technology by Wired UK. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum, Web Summit, and DLD. He has interviewed Tony Blair, Dmitry Medvedev, Kevin Spacey, Lily Cole, Pavel Durov, Jimmy Wales, and many other tech leaders and celebrities. Mike is a regular broadcaster, appearing on BBC News, Sky News, CNBC, Channel 4, Al Jazeera and Bloomberg. He has also advised UK Prime Ministers and the Mayor of London on tech startup policy, as well as being a judge on The Apprentice UK. GQ magazine named him one of the 100 Most Connected Men in the UK. He is the co-founder ThePathfounder.com newsletter; TheEuropas.com (the Annual European Tech Startup Conference & Awards for 12 years); and the non-profits Techfugees.com, TechVets.co, and Coadec.com. He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2016 for services to the UK technology industry and journalism.
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