Funding

London-based fintech start-up Crezco have announced they have closed their seed funding round for £3m. UK-founded Crezco provide free payments that settle instantly and integrate with the likes of Xero and QuickBooks to reconcile payments automatically. The solution is designed to bring the convenience of the B2C payments to the historically neglected B2B payment space and hopes to remove trade borders globally to promote international trade.

“We’re thrilled to announce such a strong raise. The capital will now be used to expand the team to bring additional payment products to the market and to new markets further abroad. We’ve already doubled the headcount in the last 4 months.” Ralph (CEO)

Solving a problem

Founded in 2020 by Ralph Rogge and Igor Pikovsky, Crezco have already secured integration partnerships with big names in the accounting sector like Xero and QuickBooks. Early customer reviews are shining a bright light on the company who are plugged into millions of bank accounts across the UK and Europe.

“While many companies just repackage already existing solutions and change the UI, the product remains the same. Open banking is new technology creating new solutions for old and painful problems.”

The B2C payments space has progressed significantly from the introduction of card payments in the sixties to more recent innovations such as ApplePay, but B2B payments like invoicing have stayed the same. They lack the convenience of B2C contactless payments and are full of friction points. This is where Crezco comes in.

PSD2 and open banking presented us with an opportunity to make B2B payments as convenient as B2C card payments, but without the processing fees and delays associated with cards. Via our open banking API, companies can make and receive payments of up to £250,000 per transaction in seconds, without costs.  

“Convenience is everything. A product can be brilliant but if customers cannot use it, you don’t have a business. We’re a customer focused company. You can integrate Crezco into your accounting platform in around 3-minutes and that’s it. Going forward, sent invoices will include a Crezco checkout option to offer your customers a faster, more secure checkout option. Following payment, Crezco handles all the reconciliation within your accounting software.”

Experienced investors

Crezco has a diversified and experienced group of backers, including Charles Delingpole, founder and CEO of Comply Advantage, Chris Adelsbach, fintech investor and Managing Partner at OutRun Ventures. Others include UFP Fintech, early Revolut investors and a host of angel investors, VC funds and payment experts.    

Expansion

Crezco can offer payments for free as the cost of processing is marginal. After speaking with investors and discussing the constant race to the bottom line, the decision was made to take it zero and create more value through new features.

“There’s been a real problem with Fintech firms scaling internationally, however with open banking, we sit on top of the banks so can plug into new infrastructure market-by-market. We’re rolling out recurring payments in the next few weeks, then it’ll be FX for international payments later in the year. Following that we’ll be looking into lending and deposits as we continue to expand not only our products but our geographical reach. We’re tremendously excited by the open banking revolution. To be providing a genuinely great product for customers whilst leveraging the latest technology is hugely satisfying for us and we believe we have at least a decade of innovation and new technology ahead.”