A financial home for e-commerce entrepreneurs

Pan Finance speaks with Mads Andreas Olesen, CEO of MXNEY

Over the past few years, the Nordic startup scene has undergone significant growth, both in terms of the ecosystem and capital supply. We’ve witnessed Nordic entrepreneurs make significant strides, putting them on par with the highest European standards.

With unprecedented speed, we have seen the rise of Nordic fintech successes such as AiiA, Tink, Pleo, Lunar, Chainalysis and more. As the Nordic startup scene has spun off unicorns and big exits, a few vigilant VC’s who have looked to the nordics for a good deal have found promising business models at compet- itive valuations.

Now, in the wake of a noticeable presence in Scandinavia, and with strong customer cases, a new fast-growing and financially self-sustainable scale-up is entering the VC-spotlight as they have managed to outgrow their burn and expand into 12 European countries.

MXNEY is the 2023 Nordic Region Best eCommerce Financing Solution, and we have asked the founder, Mads Andreas Olesen, 10 questions about what’s next.

Mads, the founder of MXNEY, is no stranger to entrepreneurship. Having already achieved a $16 million exit at the age of 25 and being named to Forbes 30 Under 30, he’s built several other successful companies. However, Mads recognises that he didn’t achieve his success alone. “Everybody wants to be the hero of their own story, but the truth is, I would be nowhere without the financial support I had around me, the mentors, and the colleagues,” he explains. “That’s why we’ve standardised this experience and democratised access to it. That’s what MXNEY is all about.”

To gain deeper insights into MXNEY’s business operations and future roadmap, we recently conducted an interview with Mads Andreas Olesen, the company’s founder and CEO. Through this conversation, we delved into various aspects of MXNEY’s growth journey, including its plans for raising a series A.

PLEASE LET THE READERS KNOW, WHAT IS MXNEY TRYING TO ACHIEVE?

MXNEY (pronounced ‘money’) is ‘all things finance for eCommerce smallprenuers’ and aims to provide ecommerce smallpreneurs with a financial home containing anything money-related, including growth capital, business wallets with payment cards, a payment solution etc. Our goal is to empower ecommerce founders with the financial muscle needed to operate and grow their webshop.

CONGRATULATIONS ON WINNING ‘BEST ECOMMERCE FINANCING SOLUTIONS – NORDIC REGION 2023’. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE FUTURE PLANS AND GOALS FOR MXNEY IN LIGHT OF THIS RECOGNITION?

Thank you! Our primary goal now is to establish a strong presence throughout Europe and acquire customers to our financial home at an even faster pace. We have become an established player in the Scandinavian countries and have recently opened up our activities in 12 different European countries and more to come soon.

TAKING ON EUROPE CAN BE A SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE. WHAT INITIATIVES DO YOU HAVE IN MIND TO EXCEL YOUR GROWTH EVEN FURTHER?

In addition to naturally scaling up our sales activities, we are planning to raise a Series A in H1 of 2023. Our financial home has been fully furnished, and our line of new products are already seeing great traction. With this in mind, our focus is deploying the capital we raise to acquire new customers and expand into new markets.

THE VC-ENVIRONMENT HAS CHANGED SIGNIFICANTLY THE PAST YEAR. WHAT MEASURES HAVE YOU TAKEN TO BECOME READY FOR RAISING YOUR SERIES A?

We’ve been fortunate that our business model allows us to be cash-generative while achieving consistent month-over-month growth of around 10-20%. To adapt to the changing environment, we adjusted our growth goals in January of last year and focused on being cash-generative in our operations.

THE ANALOGY OF AIMING TO BECOME A WORKHORSE RATHER THAN A UNICORN HAS BEEN USED BY SCALE UPS LOWERING THEIR GROWTH GOALS. WHAT IS MXNEY AIMING TO BECOME?

We are in the privileged position that raising a series A is a choice for us, rather than a necessity to survive. Our purpose of raising a series A is to accelerate beyond our current trajectory, and in the end, our aim is still pointed at the unicorn status.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE PROBLEM THAT MXNEY AIMS TO SOLVE?

Looking at players in the ecommerce field, Solo and smallpreneurs compose a vast ma- jority, approx. 95%. This particular group of startup founders is not very tech-savvy and often find financial products to be complex, making it challenging for them to maintain an accurate overview of their own financial operations.

WITH SO MANY FINTECH PRODUCTS ALREADY IN THE MARKET, HOW DOES MXNEY JUSTIFY ITS FIT IN THE MARKET?

In the landscape of fintech startups offering products similar to ours, we notice a trend : some offer easy-to-use financial products geared towards smallpreneurs but not specifically tailored for e-commerce, and those offering tailor-made products for ecommerce focus on mid- to high-ticket e-commerce players, resulting in products that are overly complicated and challenging to use for smallpreneurs.

Despite having a healthy boutique, many smallpreneurs are left financially fatigued in a complex landscape of innovative and cutting-edge financial products. Reportedly, 57% of online merchants rely on personal savings and personal loans to fund their businesses.

AND SO, HOW IS MXNEY TRYING TO DISRUPT THE FINANCIAL MARKET FOR ECOMMERCE SMES?

Our platform aims to consolidate all financial tools in one place, enabling users to easily install and connect financial products within one single comprehensive overview. We under- stand that most smallpreneurs don’t have the resources or know-how to integrate API’s and build data warehouses, which is why we make it easy for them to access everything needed for their financial setup with just a click of a button.

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE JOURNEY OF HOW YOUR FINANCIAL HOME WAS SHAPED?

With years of experience providing growth capital for e-commerce businesses, we’re excited to have realised our vision of offering a full suite of financial products, including MXNEY Pay, our payment solution, and MXNEY Wallet, which encompasses business accounts with payment cards. So far, we have already seen great traction, and we’re eager to continue building momentum.

LOOKING AHEAD TO THE COMING YEAR, WHAT DO YOU SEE AS YOUR TOP PRIORITY FOR THE COMPANY?

We need to mention recruiting and attracting new talent to our team. Each week, we welcome new team members for both our HQ and remotely. Whether it’s scaling up our commercial operations or improving our products, we know that world-class talent will be key to achieving our growth goals.