Penta Rolls Out New Initiative For SMB Onboarding

A co-founder of Penta, the German-based virtual bank, is now rolling out Relio, an initiative focused on serving small to midsize businesses (SMBs), according to a report from Crowdfund Insider.

Relio was launched to help meet the unique requirements of small businesses trying to get banked, the report says.

Lav Odorovic, Penta’s co-founder, said he learned of the things needed while working at Penta.

Relio, according to the report, will focus on complex firms, allowing them the opportunity to take advantage of all-digital accounts, with onboarding experience suited to meet the various complex scenarios companies might face. The platform is developed with the latest regulatory technology, and Odorovic said the point was “compliance without complications,” the report says.

Relio’s management says that the company’s tools will allow companies to get an account with a Swedish IBAN within 24 hours.

In addition, the company is developing tools and software integrations to help businesses save time and boost production, the report says.

On what separates Relio’s services from others, the company cited its more simplified and streamlined compliance process, as opposed to some others which take “weeks” and involve the SMBs going through a convoluted process, particularly those with foreign founders, regulation structures or holding industries. Relio claims that some companies end up having up to 20 interactions with a bank before their accounts are opened, which Relio claims to fix.

Last December, Penta began offering new services to let customers manage accounts and receipts digitally, through a partnership with Germany’s DATEV Marketplace. Penta will be able to achieve a “perfect symbiosis” through allowing both proprietary accounting access digitally and directly from their business accounts.

That service was aimed at larger companies that had more employees to deal with, and thus more complex accounting needs.

With Penta’s new service, customers gained the ability to attach receipts directly to any bank transaction and synchronize them to files, like a monthly statement.