French fintech unicorn Qonto to gobble up German peer Penta

Paris-based Qonto says the acquisition of Penta, which also focuses on the SME market, marks the next logical step in its ambition to become a financing provider for “one million European SMEs and freelancers by 2025”.

Image source: Lukas Zörner (co-founder of Penta), Steve Anavi (co-founder and president of Qonto), Markus Pertlwieser (CEO of Penta), Alexandre Prot (co-founder and CEO of Qonto).

French fintech unicorn Qonto plans to buy German peer Penta as it looks to boost its European ambitions across the SME and freelance market.

Paris-based Qonto says the acquisition of Penta marks the next logical step in its ambition to become a financial provider for “one million European SMEs and freelancers by 2025”. The deal is expected to close within the next few weeks.

Launched in France in 2017 and now valued at €4.4 billion, Qonto helps SMEs and freelancers with day-to-day banking, financing, invoicing, bookkeeping and cost management.

It currently has over 250,000 customers across four markets (France, Germany, Italy and Spain) and employs more than 700 people.

Launched in 2017, Penta also focuses on SMEs.

Although Penta focuses on SMEs, which have raised at least €30 million to date, Penta now also offers digital business bank accounts to sole traders, freelancers and the self-employed.

Penta has 50,000 customers in Germany and 200 employees, who are mainly based in Berlin and Belgrade.

The German fintech does not have its own banking licence, but has entered into a partnership with solarisBank, whose main purpose is to enable other companies to use the banking licence.

The size of the deal has not been disclosed, but according to a report in Finance FWD, the purchase price is in the mid-three-figure millions.

Qonto was last valued at 4.4 billion euros in its latest funding round, up from 486 million euros earlier this year, which at the time marked France’s largest ever fintech fundraising.

Qonto believes that the deal will increase its ambitions in the German market, pointing to its own brand, license and core banking system linked to Penta’s local expertise.

Alexandre Prot, Qonto CEO, said: “When Steve Anavi and I founded Qonto in 2016, we had the ambitious goal of simplifying everyday banking for SMEs and freelancers across Europe.

“Today we are already present in four European markets, and although I am very proud of what we have achieved so far, we want to go even further: the natural next step was to merge with Penta. We are thrilled to welcome the Penta team on board.”

Markus Pertlwieser, CEO of Penta, said: “Lukas Zörner and his co-founders have written a real fintech success story.

“With the combination of increasing customer numbers and increasing revenues, we have gained even more substance over the past 18 months. We are very pleased that we now have the chance to actively shape digital banking for corporate customers in Europe as a team with Qonto.”