London-based Kantox has secured €6.5 million from PartechVentures and Idinvest Partners to support its growth efforts, the website growthbusiness.co.uk has reported. Kantox is a peer-to-peer currency exchange platform established by Philippe Gelis who previously worked as a consultant at Deloitte.
The platform works by connecting businesses with other firms that have transaction requirements. For example, a Europe-based company that imports Chinese goods and pays in US dollars would be able to find another company in Europe that exports goods to the UK and have dollars to offer in exchange for Euros through the services offered by Kantox, the report said.
Proceeds from the funding round will be used to bolster its European presence and improve the technology it has. In 2011, the financial technology firm was able to bag a €25,000 start-up prize and then close a seed round of €150,000 after it got regulated. In the summer of 2012, Kantox also secured €1 million to bring more people to the team and start scaling up, the report said.
Gelis, who is now the Chief Executive Officer of Kantox, said that they will now start to build the company's sales teams in other parts of Europe like Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the UK.
Gelis said, "The internet brings unprecedented possibilities for SMEs to trade internationally. FX, and an ability to hedge, is one of the key barriers these companies face as they set their sights overseas - we are determined to help them overcome this."
Gelis added that even if the foreign currency exchange market is generally thought of as very competitive and efficient, this does not accurately represent the real situation. Gelis said, "Large corporates enjoy access to really competitive rates, while SMEs and mid-caps - who usually don't have access to live rates or an in-house FX expert - are overcharged by a banking oligopoly which promotes opacity."
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