German SME challenger Penta teams up with card reader SumUp to tap offline businesses
Penta Partners, Berlin’s digital banking platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has partnered with UK-based card reader SumUp to help its move into the traditional business space.
Breaking out of its customer niche, which until now has been online-savvy entrepreneurs looking to avoid traditional bank processes, Penta will now expand its offering to restaurants, healthcare professionals, architects and manufacturers to name just a few of the longer-established sectors.
Marko Wenthin, Penta CEO
“We are now expanding to serve traditional industries, which form the backbone of German and European society and economy,” says Penta CEO Marko Wenthin, who believes these areas are “forming the largest part of the SME market in Germany and Italy” but don’t get the attention of traditional banks.
Acquired by German fintech company builder Finleap in April 2019 just months after raising $7 million in a Series A funding round, Penta used the acquisition to expand into Italy in partnership with Beesy, a Finleap portfolio company which focuses on digital business banking for freelancers.
The fintech says it already serves SMEs better than traditional banks, offering them a digital account-opening process, multiple payment cards, grant limits and team permissions, expense management and integrated accounting tools.
Now, with SumUp, it can offer SMEs the ability to accept card payments.
“By cooperating with partners who enable our customers to simplify bookkeeping, employee benefits and management or make foreign payments, Penta is already now the default financial platform for SMEs in both Germany and Italy,” Wenthin adds.
