editorial
Swan, a European Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, has successfully raised €16 million ($20 million) in a recent funding round. This funding is crucial for bolstering the quality and scalability of Swan’s product, as well as providing notable benefits to their customers.
According to Swan CEO Nicolas Benady, their platform makes it simple for European companies to integrate banking services into their own products and reap the advantages. Benady, who has been actively involved in the payments and banking industry for 15 years, expressed his belief that the industry was poorly designed, citing unnecessary complexity, lengthy sales processes, excessive paperwork, high costs, and slow operations. However, with the rise of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and the advent of smartphones, he realized the potential to simplify and enhance the industry through thoughtful design.
Swan’s primary focus is on delivering excellent product design in the payments and banking space, as Benady and his co-founders, Nicolas and Mathieu, launched the company with the goal of making it genuinely easy for European entrepreneurs to incorporate banking features into their core products. They have taken a BaaS approach, reimagining every step of the process, including discovery, testing, integration, and launch, to ensure that everything is user-friendly, fast, and reliable.
The company’s vision to productize BaaS has become a reality since officially registering in 2019. Today, Swan powers the backend operations of 100 European companies, including Pennylane, Alma, and Agicap, enabling them to enhance their products with embedded banking services and generate new revenue streams. Notably, Expensya tripled its average revenue per user by incorporating Swan’s card offering.
Swan’s embedded banking platform supports various functionalities such as card issuance, localized banking accounts, and automated SEPA transfers. To date, they have processed over €7 billion ($8.7 billion) for their clients, but they believe this is just the beginning.
In addition to their existing capabilities, Swan is working on expanding its offering to allow companies to accept payments in all formats. They have already launched SEPA Direct Debit and are currently developing card acquisition functionality. This strategic direction was prompted by numerous customer requests, especially from companies innovating in traditional sectors like real estate.
Swan’s upcoming product lines, including payment collection, international credit transfers, and embedded lending, are designed for large organizations such as Spanish scale-up Factorial and Carrefour. Recently, Swan successfully collaborated with Carrefour on a cashback program.
With its innovative BaaS platform, Swan is transforming the payments and banking industry, enabling European entrepreneurs to easily integrate banking services into their products while providing a seamless experience for end-users.
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