ING Belgium teams with Finnish start-up for invoicing software sales
Rik Vandenberghe, ING Belgium
ING Belgium has acquired the rights to rebrand Finnish fintech start-up Zervant’s invoicing software across Europe.
The software will be marketed as ING invoice solutions and will be sold via its own channels to SMEs and entrepreneurs.
During the first phase, ING Belgium will have the rights to sell the tool in Belgium, with a potential opening to other entities in the ING Group.
Zervant co-founder and CEO Mattias Hansson says it’s a “significant step forward” for the firm and it “hopes to substantially increase its turnover for the year”.
Rik Vandenberghe, CEO ING Belgium, adds: “When it comes to innovation, we strongly believe in collaboration. The partnership with Zervant allows us to go beyond traditional banking and to respond to the changing needs of our clients.”
Zervant says its service has over 100,000 users and its core markets are Sweden, Finland, Germany, France and the UK.
Zing to the start-up ring
Vandenberghe’s words echo ING’s recent revelation that it’s working with 45 fintech start-ups on banking innovation, such as money management, payments, lending and mobile on-boarding.
Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING Group, says of the 45 fintech firms, these include seven start-ups working on their proof-of-concept through the ING Fintech Village initiative in Belgium, and four through the Innovation Studio in the Netherlands.
Hamers says ING’s plan is to “accelerate the execution” of its Think Forward strategy – namely “further investments in proprietary technologies and collaborations with fintechs”.
