Collectively, Tashi and Niklas carry almost 30 years of working experience, most predominantly within the fintech industry, having occupied a number of senior positions at some of the most reputable fintechs to have emerged out of Sweden over the past decade, including Tink and Bambora.

Tashi spent almost five years at Europe’s most robust open banking platform, Tink. As part of the management team, he was the driving force behind the strategy and execution in transforming Tink from a Swedish B2C mobile application to a Pan-European B2B platform. During his time at Tink, the company grew from 20 to 370 people, and is now covering 18 markets with some of Europe’s most prominent banks and fintechs as customers. For his part, Niklas brings with him an acute understanding of the payments industry, having played an integral part in developing and executing a go-to-market strategy for Bambora, the leading developer of card acquiring and payment software for online payments - where he worked as its Head of Commerce Development for six years.

Billhop is the payment platform that allows businesses to pay invoices by card regardless of whether the receiver accepts cards. With over 50,000 SMEs, sole traders and large corporates across Europe currently using its solutions, Billhop has recently experienced a dramatic increase in the demand for its service as a result of the pandemic. In particular, the total transactions processed via Billhop, across all of its customer segments, exceeded €270M in 2020. In February 2021, Billhop secured a €4M Series A investment from Element Ventures, to help expand its platform and bolster its customer service, marketing and sales teams. Earlier this month, Billhop announced a new partnership with ICS, the largest credit card provider in the Netherlands, to help improve working capital for Dutch businesses.

Tashi Gauffin, Billhop’s CCO - who will be responsible for the commercial strategy and development, while overseeing all revenue-generating functions - comments: “I’ve been really impressed with how much Billhop has grown over the past few years, and I’m really excited to be joining such an ambitious company that is revolutionising the way businesses operate. I look forward to the journey ahead and to further help expand the company’s market footprint and establish Billhop as the next big fintech to come out of Sweden.”

As Billhop’s COO, Niklas Bothén will be responsible for optimising operational capabilities, employing strategies to maximise customer satisfaction, and managing product initiatives. Niklas comments: “With my background in the commercial payments industry, I have witnessed first-hand the significant cash flow problems experienced by SMEs as a result of the low card acceptance issue within the B2B space. Billhop was created as a direct solution to this widespread problem, so the values and the mission of the company are something that really resonate with me. It’s nothing but a privilege to be joining a company that is providing such a critical technology and solving such an important business need.”

Sebastian Andreescu, CEO & co-founder of Billhop, comments: “What Tashi and Niklas bring - beyond a proven track record of successfully scaling fintechs - is a really diverse combination of skills which will be instrumental in consolidating Billhop’s footprint as the leader in B2B payment solutions across Europe.”