Bolt and Skroutz partner with finmid as fintech raises €17 million extension

Berlin-based embedded lending company finmid has raised €17 million in new funding as it expands into vehicle finance and marketplace lending through partnerships with Bolt and Skroutz. The Series A extension, announced on Tuesday, brings finmid’s total funding to €52 million and marks a significant expansion beyond the working capital financing that has formed the core of its business. The company said the new capital will be used to expand its asset-finance products, multi-source funding infrastructure and underwriting capabilities, while supporting further expansion into sectors including mobility and e-commerce. Finmid provides lending infrastructure that allows platforms used by businesses to offer financing without having to build their own lending systems. The company handles areas including underwriting, regulated lending and servicing, while the capital can come from the platform itself, a banking partner or finmid’s refinancing partners. The new products are significant because they take the model into larger and more complex forms of business finance, beginning with vehicle financing for Bolt fleet operators and merchant lending through Greek online marketplace Skroutz. The funding round was led by Big Pi Ventures, with Mainset also investing and existing investor Earlybird following on. Finmid said it has extended more than €4 billion in financing offers to businesses across 30 European markets since its launch. Its partners have included Wolt, Delivery Hero, myPOS and efood. The company said around 85 per cent of its borrowers return for further financing, while businesses receiving financing have increased their revenue on partner platforms by as much as 45 per cent. The latest announcement is finmid’s first funding round since its €23 million Series A in April 2024. Its first new product is Bolt Vehicle Solutions, a financing programme developed with ride-hailing company Bolt to give fleet operators access to tailored vehicle finance. Europe’s ride-hailing market is projected to reach €157 billion by 2034, according to finmid, but the fleet operators serving that market face difficulties securing suitable finance for their vehicles. Traditional lenders can struggle to assess fleet businesses because they may not have sufficient visibility into their commercial performance. At the same time, standard financing offered by vehicle manufacturers is often not designed around the needs of vehicles used intensively for commercial purposes. Bolt Vehicle Solutions is intended to address that gap by allowing operators to explore vehicles available through the platform and then connect with finmid to review financing options and complete an application. The financing provides for fixed monthly repayments, with ownership of the vehicle transferring to the operator after the final payment. The finmid team The model therefore aims to turn what can otherwise be a recurring vehicle expense into ownership of a long-term business asset. Joshua Okeleke, Europe business development lead at Bolt, said access to vehicles and suitable finance can be a significant obstacle for fleet operators seeking to expand. “Fleet operators are essential to making ride-hailing work, but access to vehicles and financing can be a real barrier to growing their businesses,” Okeleke said. “With Bolt Vehicle Solutions, we’re helping remove that barrier by combining preferential vehicle deals with a simpler path to financing and, ultimately, ownership,” he added. “That gives our fleet partners a stronger foundation to invest in their businesses, put more vehicles on the road and grow alongside rising passenger demand,” Okeleke stated. Finmid’s second new product is Skroutz Funding, developed with Skroutz, Greece’s largest online marketplace, to provide financing to around 9,000 merchants operating through the platform. The arrangement differs from finmid’s earlier model because Skroutz Group itself provides the capital used to finance its merchants. Finmid supplies the underlying credit infrastructure, including underwriting, regulated lending, servicing and refinancing. The company said this is its first partnership in which its lending infrastructure is built around capital provided directly by the platform itself. The move is part of finmid’s broader strategy of bringing financing into the digital platforms where businesses already operate. Alexander Talkanitsa, co-founder of finmid, said the company’s technology could now support forms of finance well beyond the short-term advances with which embedded lending first became associated. “Two years ago, embedded lending meant a cash advance for a restaurant,” Talkanitsa said. “Today the same rails carry a multi-year vehicle loan, a marketplace’s own balance sheet, and the potential for more.” “Every platform with business customers now has a way to become their financing partner without becoming a bank,” Talkanitsa added. Max Schertel, co-founder of finmid, said digital platforms were increasingly well placed to understand the businesses using their services because they have direct access to information about their activity. “Small businesses have never lacked ambition, they’ve lacked a lender who could see them,” Schertel stated. “Platforms, with their live and embedded view of the businesses they power, are uniquely placed to fill that gap, and finmid exists to make it happen,” he added. “With Bolt we’re financing the cars that fleets run on; with Skroutz the marketplace itself is putting its capital behind its merchants,” Schertel continued. “Our job is to make that credit safe, fast and regulated, whoever provides the money and whatever businesses need it for,” he stated. The expansion has also attracted backing from Big Pi Ventures, which led the latest funding round. Nick Kalliagkopoulos, a partner at Big Pi Ventures, said embedded lending had become increasingly important to online marketplaces. “Embedded lending is now essential infrastructure for marketplaces, and finmid is built to deliver it,” Kalliagkopoulos said. “Their capital light structure lets them grow quickly, and their licensing and geographic foothold make them a partner marketplaces can plug in once and scale everywhere,” he added. “Their traction in southeast Europe, a region many overlook despite its size, is proof of how much whitespace is still out there,” said Kalliagkopoulos. Finmid said its expansion reflects a shift in its business following its initial success with working capital finance. The company’s model allows a platform to integrate financing through a single connection, while finmid manages the lending infrastructure and the platform can determine where the financing capital comes from. The latest products extend that approach into vehicle ownership and marketplace-funded lending, potentially giving platforms more ways to support the businesses that depend on them. The company said its continuing expansion across Europe would focus on both new asset classes and additional platform categories, particularly mobility and e-commerce.