March 28, 2024

Following Square's model: Sumup launches a banking app for end customers

Following Square’s model: Sumup launches a banking app for end customers

Exclusive: The $1 billion start-up SumUp aims to reach future end customers with a banking app and bonus points for restaurants and cafes. The two acquisitions offer important advantages. What is the topic of financial technology?

Clear playbook. Fintech Star Square, which has just been renamed The Block, once started with small card terminals for restaurants and bars. At the same time, it was possible to create its own financing application for end customers: 70 million users are now using the cash application, and it reaches a target group of young people.

The Square and Cash app’s growth story has been well-received: The exchange estimates the company, whose president and founder Jack Dorsey recently retired from his second job as head of Twitter, to focus entirely on its fintech, is a roughly $100 billion-a-job to lie down.

In Europe, German-British supplier Sumup is a quiet but serious competitor to Square. In a recent deal with donors, the company was valued at billions of dollars. So far, Sumup has focused on business with small traders using card terminals. But that’s about to change, Sumup is working on a banking app for end customers. Based on the example of the monetary application.

Already started with a business account

In the past few months, Sumup has already expanded its features for merchants little by little, and the payment provider has purchased a number of startups in order to add more and more functionality. By licensing electronic money in three countries, it is working to offer a business account to bars and restaurants (Finance Forward and FinanzSzene.de reported on the plans).

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But Sumup has been working on the plans for end customers for a long time, according to the company. The first traces were found on the Internet for a few weeks. on the site Sumup.io The app is available in the UK. According to Google Play, more than 100,000 users have already downloaded the app. Officially the company does not want to comment.

First of all, it can be used to send money to friends (the first feature in the Cash app), and users can also pay using the app. Ambitions are great. In a job ad in which Sumup is looking for a product manager, there is talk of wanting to become a “leading consumer brand in fintech.” And so all over the world.

An account instead of a stamp card

At first glance, it seems impossible to develop an offer for end customers from a provider of about three million convenience stores and merchants. Because marketing is usually fundamentally different. However, the case of Sumup is somewhat different: the company advertises heavily on television or on billboards. Brand awareness is really high, also because people know recap from their visits to the restaurant.

If you spin the idea even further, Sumup can, for example, offer a reward system to regular customers in cafes and restaurants – instead of a stamp card. Just in mid-October, Sumup bought Fivestars for $317 million, which offers a reward system to local merchants and thus already serves millions of end customers. In addition, Goodtill, another acquisition by Sumup, offers a feature for restaurants to order and pay for food.

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By offering your own account and reward points, it may be possible to impress regular customers of trendy restaurants, for example. Additionally, if Sumup extends its license, you will also be able to use deposits to fund a merchant credit program called “Merchant Cash Advance.” According to the job posting, 40 employees are already working on the final client project.

The starting point for German-British fintech is good. Square has thus far struggled with European expansion. The cash app hasn’t arrived yet, even if the billion-dollar company is working on it and looking for management. But Sumup, on the other hand, knows the markets better.

Founder Mark Alexander Christ spoke about the history of the origins of Sumup In OMR-Podcast I spoke to Philip Westermayer, who showed up on Sunday.