Qonto ready to buy a German competitor

The French neo-bank for professionals Qonto is building on its success story. With its status as the most valued French unicorn, it is now seeking to establish itself as a European leader. It currently covers 4 markets, including Germany, where it plans to acquire one of its main competitors.

FACTS

• The information has just been confirmed by the main parties involved, after several days of rumours. Qonto has signed a binding share purchase agreement to acquire Penta.

• As a reminder, Penta is a specialist in financial services for companies. Its BtoB positioning is therefore the same as Qonto's, making the two players direct competitors.

• Penta's investors (HV Capital, the start-up studio Finleap, ABN Amro Ventures, etc.) have become Qonto's investors.

• Its purchase by Qonto should represent several tens of millions of euros, without the amount being confirmed.

• The Penta brand in particular will disappear in favour of the Qonto brand, which aims to establish itself as a single strong brand on the European territory.

CHALLENGES

• Accelerate its expansion in Germany: If in France, Qonto has established itself as a reference in its market, its takeover of Penta could also enable it to become the leading provider of financial services for professionals in the German market while shedding its biggest local competitor.

• A profitable partner: Penta had 40,000 customers at the end of 2021. A relatively large number, but one that nevertheless allowed the FinTech to generate a monthly turnover of almost 600,000 euros.

• Consolidating their business in a down cycle: As investors become more wary, one way to continue to grow is through a buyout. If Penta is the first investment of the French unicorn, it may not be the last.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Qonto would now be able to shine a little brighter on the European FinTech market, thanks to an exceptional Series D financing round in January, for an amount of 486 million euros. In addition to establishing the unicorn as the most valued company in France, this round of financing will have given it new financial capacity, allowing it to consider this acquisition.

• This is a timely decision, because although Qonto announced last January that it had 220,000 professional customers, it never specified how many it served on the German market.

• With Penta, Qonto should also have 900 employees and aims to recruit 2,000 employees by 2025. These employees should then serve one million customers, according to Qonto's objectives.