Global banking group Banco Santander has led a €5 million (£4.3 million) investment into iZettle to go with the $46.7 million of venture capital investment it has already netted.
iZettle, which has offices in Stockholm, London, Berlin and Madrid, has developed a smartphone and tablet app which allows for credit card payments to be taken without the need for a terminal.
Its chip and pin and chip and signature card readers are inserted into a smart device which can then be operated by a vendor.
Having initially set up in Sweden, iZettle’s services are now available in European countries including the UK, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
Jacob de Geer, co-founder and CEO of iZettle, says, ‘We want to bring iZettle to the world, and to do that we must have strategic partnerships with the world’s leading banks.
‘Our relationship with Banco Santander is central to our transition from local to multinational services.’
iZettle’s previous fundraising activity has seen it secure the backing of firms such as Index Ventures, Greylock Partners and SEB Private Equity. It also has other banking partners including American Express and MasterCard.
Its two previous funding rounds were worth €11.2 million in November 2011 and €31.4 million in June 2012.
Speaking to GrowthBusiness, de Geer says that whilst iZettle has not yet revealed any UK figures, it is growing ‘extremely quickly’.
He adds that part of the reason for Banco Santander, and previous banking backers American Express and Mastercard, getting involved, was so that the organisations could be part of the ‘next era’ of payments.
‘The world is changing and incumbents are pretty slow by nature in adapting and changing. They are being part of the change rather than being on the sideline,’ he adds.
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To coincide with the investment, iZettle and Banco Santander are also embarking upon a partnership to allow self-employed professionals and small businesses to accept card payments.
Santander Business Banking will now be offering a service that includes the iZettle chip and pin reader to its small business customers at a ‘preferential rate’.
Commenting on the new investment, Ramon Tellaeche, head of Santander Cards at Banco Santander, adds, ‘Millions of small business owners and professionals in the markets where we operate need an alternative to conventional credit card terminals, and simple software to manage and analyse their transactions.
‘We are strongly committed to innovation that satisfies emerging needs of our customers, we believe iZettle’s innovative mobile technologies will be crucial to those merchants’ near and long-term success.’
