Stockholm-based startup Atlar raised a $5 million (€5 million) seed spherical led by Index Ventures. The corporate has been engaged on an software programming interface (API) that facilitates bank-to-bank funds for European companies.
In addtion to Index Ventures, La Famiglia VC, Cocoa and varied enterprise angels additionally participated within the spherical, resembling Revolut CFO Mikko Salovaara, former EVP of world gross sales at Adyen Thijn Lamers and N26 CFO Jan Kemper.
Whereas European customers are already fairly accustomed to open banking and cost initiation, numerous B2B transfers are nonetheless processed manually. Enterprise banking hasn’t skilled the identical degree of innovation with regards to funds.
And but, company banks already supply methods to provoke funds with out having to connect with an internet portal and add a spreadsheet. However banks don’t essentially run trendy REST APIs. They count on a textual content file formatted in a really particular means on an SFTP server.
If in case you have a growth group, they may construct a customized integration. However many firms merely don’t have the sources to take care of these connections. They might fairly pay a companion to deal with all of the technical particulars.
Atlar gives a contemporary API that hides all of the complexities concerned with financial institution connections. As soon as an organization makes use of Atlar, it might set off transfers, reconcile transactions and course of direct debits by Atlar’s API immediately.
Specifically, Atlar can be utilized for payouts, insurance coverage premiums, deposits and mortgage payouts. Corporations that function throughout a number of European nations seemingly have a number of financial institution accounts. That’s why automating funds might be a pleasant improve for these companies.
“Accepting funds as a enterprise is fairly painless now, however initiating them together with your financial institution remains to be agonisingly sluggish and handbook,” Atlar co-founder and CEO Joel Nordström stated in a press release. “This is the reason Atlar is on a journey to changing into the working system for bank-based funds. By creating a brand new class, we hope to unleash a wave of innovation for our purchasers which can in the end profit European customers and companies.”
Along with Joel Nordström, Joel Wägmark and Johannes Elgh are the 2 different co-founders. They have been all working at Tink, the open banking firm that was acquired by Visa for $2.2 billion.
Atlar competes with Numeral, a French startup that I coated earlier this yr. To this point, Atlar focuses on the Nordics, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. And right now’s funding spherical shall be useful with regards to European enlargement.