Memo Bank To Go Public With $22.5M Funding Round

French startup Memo Bank is intending to go public soon, boasting $22.5 million in new funding.

And with a business bank credit license, the bank will now begin offering quick credit lines.

Memo Bank aims to offer credit lines in “just a few days” without most of the cumbersome paperwork normally associated with that, according to TechCrunch.

Memo Bank plans to serve business customers exclusively, offering services for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with €2 million in annual turnover, and more than 10 employees. According to Jean-Daniel Guyot, co-founder and CEO, the bank will also attempt to fix small problems like letting businesses add team member easier and search web interface transactions for longer than the three-month window that some other business banks offer.

The bank will be accepting applications in the Paris area for now, although it intends to expand to Lyon and other areas within the next few years. It has no physical branch.

Rather than competing against neobanks, Memo Bank’s biggest competitors are online lending programs like October, the report said.

The funding round was backed by BlackFin Capital Partners, along with existing investors Daphni and Bpifrance. Other investors include Founders Future, Alexis Bonillo, Antoine Martin, Marc Simoncini, Nicolas Steegmann, Oleg Tscheltzoff, Paulin Dementhon, Pierre Valade, Rachel Delacour, Sarah Meyohas, Thibaud Elzière and Xavier Niel, according to the report. The former CEO of Arkéa, Ronan Le Moal, will join the company board.

The bank also raised $7.6 million in 2018, TechCrunch reported.

Memo Bank, previously called Margo Bank, says on its website that it aims to help businesses with digital transformations, and that it is the first independent bank launched in France in 50 years.

Banks without physical locations look more normal by the day, as the coronavirus pandemic has forced a shift into digital territory. In a recent PYMNTS interview, FIS Senior Vice President Kris Carrera predicted that digital finance transactions will make cash and paper ones obsolete eventually.