Swedish Mpos vendor iZettle is to move into small business financing by providing SMEs with an advance based on future card sales.
The launch follows a EUR60 million funding round secured by the vendor in August last year to help the firm expand beyond the world of card payments.
IZettle Advance - which is being rolled out across Europe - is aimed at small businesses that face a tough time going through the arduous process of getting capital from traditional lenders.
Because the service is aimed at merchants that use iZettle's payment acceptance tech, users are pre-assessed, meaning that when they apply they can get funds within a couple of days. They then pay back the money automatically as a fraction of card sales.
Jacob de Geer, iZettle co-founder and CEO says: “Small companies have persistently been underserved by the traditional finance industry. We want small companies to thrive, and with iZettle Advance we’re applying the exact same logic as when we started iZettle five years ago, and completely overhauled card payments acceptance for small businesses."
The move comes as iZettle rolls out its Card Reader Pro Contactless across Denmark, The Netherlands, Spain, Finland, Norway and France, following the launch in the UK and Germany last year. IZettle's Pro Contactless reader supports both Chip & PIN and contactless payments, including out-of-the-box support for Apple Pay and Android Pay.