French FinTech Closes $4M For New Neobank

FinTech startup EasyEuro — based in both Paris, France and Shenzhen, China — has closed a $4 million pre-funding deal to launch a Neobank (a 100 percent digital bank) that will target Europe and China simultaneously, the company announced in a recent blog post. The funds will be used for the Neobank product development, talent recruitment and market expansion.

EasyEuro is targeting Europe and China since they are the largest trade partners in the world. Small business (SMB) import and export volume between Europe and China hit $323 billion in 2018, and eCommerce — Amazon, Shopify and France’s Cdiscount — exceeded $100 billion in the same year.

The businesses hailed from more than 12 European countries, requiring numerous cross-currency money transfers. In addition, Chinese SMBs grappled with the best way to follow European banking practices.

With EasyEuro, SMBs can use a personal digital mobile wallet that includes a multi-currency bank account, which can be used to send and receive cross-border payments in any currency. Clients can apply for a Mastercard, and link it to their EasyEuro account for worldwide usage. The digital wallet also supports Visa, WeChat Pay, Alipay and UnionPay.

EasyEuro has a suite of open APIs for payment partners like Geoswift and SwiftPass, allowing for collect, convert, remit and pay functions.

The startup received Seed funding of ¥5 million (just more than $45,500 USD) in 2018, and raised $4 million in 2019. “The current round of funding was led by Shanghai’s Ally Capital, followed by Seed investors SwiftPass, Geoswift, Huashan Capital and Unity Assets,” reports said.

Founded in 2017 by a group of Chinese entrepreneurs living and working in Europe, EasyEuro is led by CEO Dr. Ryan Li. The startup is now an eMoney institution authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The core members of the team are from companies such as Huawei, HSBC, RBS, Ukash, Western Union and JPMorgan.

EasyEuro is focused on offering a Neobank for SMBs that trade between the continent and Asia. Trade volumes between the regions were worth more than $320 billion in 2018.