Pennylane, Qonto, Agicap, Pleo and Mollie all have one thing in common. Everyone advantages Shift manage integration with other services in one way or one other. This relatively young Belgium-based startup just raised a seed round of €2.3 million ($2.5 million at today’s exchange rates).
Many fintech startups rely on integrations to make their product work with customers’ financial stack. They often find yourself creating countless connectors and partner integrations to ensure financial information is consistent across several products. As their integration ecosystem grows, they often rely on an iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) provider.
Chift essentially acts as a third-party integration expert. It works a bit like this CODED in the UK and To mix in the US Instead of building connectors one by one, Chift offers a set of unified APIs that are compatible with the hottest financial tools available.
For example, Chift has developed an accounting API that is compatible with French accounting software from Sage, Cegid, and Pennylane. The company has also developed integrations around invoicing tools, e-commerce platforms and point of sale software.
Chift decided to focus on financial tools first. “We integrate with tools that generate financial data,” co-founder and CEO Gauthier Henroz told TechCrunch.
Unlike other industries, the fintech market is still relatively fragmented – each European country has its own accounting or invoicing platforms. However, it could be useful to have access to financial data from any SaaS product.
As more companies come to rely on Chift, the startup will have the option to add more connectors. All Chift customers can make the most of these recent integrations. An additional profit to Chift is that it creates a barrier to entry for newcomers.
“In Europe, that is where the complexity lies. The situation might be different in each country, especially when it comes to accounting, point of sale and invoicing tools,” Henroz said.
“We help our clients who then increase sales or open new markets. There is very little employee churn because you are integrated, you are connected, you connect them with others and create new opportunities for them,” he added later in the conversation.
Developing integration is also not a one-time project. Companies release updates to their APIs, which may lead to failures. Chift is responsible for maintaining these integrations. SaaS companies can focus on their core product as a substitute of these integrations.
Investors in the seed round include: Surroundings (Pieterjan Bouten Fund), Shapers (Philippe Teixeira da Mota’s fund), Seeder Fund and several business angels. “Our goal is to become a European leader,” Henroz said.