Sweden-based fintech Mynt, which has built an AI-based platform for corporate cards and spend management catering to small and medium businesses (SMEs), hit the headlines in December 2024, as it closed a round of 22 million euro (USD 23 million) after witnessing its customer base grow to 12,000 SMEs from just 3,000 a year ago. The start-up has now raised around 50 million euro in total, thereby reportedly putting its valuation in the region of 200 million euro (USD 210 million).
Two of Mynt’s co-founders, Baltsar Sahlin and Johan Obermayer were colleagues at Swedish telecom Ericsson. While the duo worked for one of the biggest European telecom companies, they realised that when it comes to providing IT-based payment services to smaller businesses, they get overlooked by big IT ventures.
This realisation is what drove the creation of Mynt in 2018. Sahlin told TechCrunch, “For us, it was more about being between the banks and accounting systems, providing a solution that solves that problem for SMEs.”
Sahlin and Obermayer paired up with Magnus Wideberg, a systems engineer who has worked for a variety of financial businesses, to start Mynt. The company started first with SMEs based in the Nordics, and right now, it is foraying into the United Kingdom and other European markets. Mynt today provides company cards with Visa as its primary partner, with Sahlin considering American Express “a competitor.”
In today’s episode of the “Start-up of the Week,” International Finance will enlighten its readers about Mynt in detail.
More Than Just A Corporate Card
Mynt has become the all-in-one solution for company expenses, with business credit cards that seamlessly integrate with SMEs’ accounting software. All they need to do is to create an account and get started with a virtual card. Mynt’s platform, built with modern software and seamlessly integrated with both banking and accounting, makes it easy for companies to get their expenses in order, manage their company cards themselves, enjoy real-time control, and access flexible financing.
The start-up also provides spend management tools and automated integrations with major accounting apps. Bringing a touch of embedded finance, Mynt has built an API that lets the start-up’s platform integrate with third parties, powering card-issuing services for enterprise resource planning businesses, banks, and fleet and fuel providers.
However, Mynt is not the only player in the global fintech space to work on such game-changing ideas. Denmark-based Pleo also helps SMEs to handle expense management activities. Another Sweden-based company Fortnox is too known for building expense management and other financial tools for SMEs, and is publicly traded. It also has a valuation in the range of USD 4 billion. However, there is a twist in the story, as Mynt itself powers the company’s corporate card services.
Despite Mynt having “rivals” in its home market (the Nordic region), what may serve as a growth incentive for the start-up and its industry peers is that expense management has remained one of the big pain points in the 21st century economy. Accounts departments of companies spend a lot of time trying to make sure spending is itemised correctly and authorised, but employees are not accountants and will sometimes get these things wrong.
Things get complicated for SMEs as these ventures generally possess smaller accounting departments, and in the worst-case scenario, they might be non-existent as well. So, solutions which automate time-consuming work like expense administration become a lifesaver for entrepreneurs.
There are just over 26 million SMEs in the European Union alone, making up about 99% of all businesses, meaning the 12,000 SMEs that Mynt currently has as its clients make up a very small portion of the market. A report in 2023 published by Pymnts spelt it out: Only around one-quarter of small and medium businesses use corporate cards in the United States, one of the more advanced markets, meaning this is a largely untapped market.
Mynt now calls itself “the financial manager’s best friend,” by helping such professionals to save time and money with easier receipt management and integrations with the market’s leading accounting systems. At the same point in time, the start-up’s solutions are helping business leaders to get full control of their budget and put individual limits on their employees’ cards.
When it comes to employees, the teams within a company are bidding adieu to their out-of-pocket expenses by availing their own company cards. The accountants are getting Streamlined expense management and automated accounting, with real time overview, instead of chasing receipts all the time.
Product Line-up at a Glance
Let’s start with Mynt’s company cards, which are helping businesses to automate their bookkeeping. Business leaders can choose how many cards they need, followed by procedures like setting individual credit limits, uploading receipts and getting full visibility of real time transactions.
While the business cards come with features like tailor-made solutions, transparent contracts, low fees and favourable terms, they have been customised in three categories: Essential (ideal for small to medium businesses with up to 10 users), Premium (optimal solution for companies looking for a comprehensive system with a full overview of all expenses) and Enterprise (corporate card for 100-plus employees affiliated with larger companies and groups).
Since these business cards have been classified as credit cards, the user can pay now or later at a low interest rate. The corporate credit card from Mynt provides it’s a credit limit of up to 5 million SEK (Swedish Krona), one of the highest limits on the Nordic country’s market. The user can manage larger expenses seamlessly and maintain a steady cash flow, while he/she can choose to repay the credit every two weeks via direct debit or once a month by invoice.
The personal company card, on the other hand, frees entrepreneurs from the thought of running their business expenses out of their own pocket, as they can set personalised spending limits for their employees, by organising the professionals into teams, checking their receipts directly in the mobile app and get a clear overview of all expenses in real time.
From card transactions to bookkeeping, businesses can eliminate their month-end paperwork, by managing expenses digitally. Mynt seamlessly integrates with popular accounting systems such as Fortnox, Visma eEkonomi and PE Accounting. With the Auto receipts feature, the right receipt is automatically matched to the right transaction.
On that note, let’s discuss the start-up’s expense management tool, which simplifies things for everyone in the company when it comes to managing and recording all business expenses in one place, saving time in the process. Mynt’s company cards keep all transactions in one place, while receipts get photographed in-app, and anything flagged up can be resolved in record time.
Using Mynt’s low-cost credit, businesses can settle their account on a monthly basis, apart from adjusting spending limits for each employee, ensuring complete control over their finances. Tech companies are now choosing the start-up’s corporate card, as it has become a smart, digital solution that streamlines financial management for such big corporations.
The start-up has recently introduced a new feature called “Out-of-Pocket Expenses,” which comes in handy for entrepreneurs, in case their staff forget to use their Mynt card (or they don’t have one), in terms of processing their expenses (including reimbursements) within the Mynt platform. This particular tool has been tailored with abilities like intelligent receipt scanning with AI and seamless integration with accounting.
Tailor-Made for All Sectors
Apart from tech companies, Mynt also helps the construction sector players, by streamlining cumbersome expense reports with an intelligent digital platform that lets the ventures manage business finances with ease, by setting spending limits for each cardholder and uploading receipts directly from the app, thereby helping these businesses enjoy real-time monitoring of their company expenditure.
Construction companies, through Mynt, are getting a crystal-clear view of their finances with live data that tracks their teams, projects and employees. They are consolidating all company expenses in one place, regardless of which card was used. Mynt’s “Out-of-Pocket Expenses” feature enables AI-powered receipt scanning, expense approvals, and seamless transaction exports directly to the company’s accounting systems. Mynt’s AI model has taken over all the manual tasks related to spend management, ensuring employees get reimbursed on time.
When it comes to retail e-commerce, the sector players get an added advantage from Mynt, with the virtual cards providing the perfect solution for subscription-based promotional services like Google Ads, while ensuring that the businesses don’t exceed their budgets. Plus, Mynt’s low-interest credit facilities give the retail e-commerce players access to extra funds whenever needed.