ECE Community members Maurits Grosfeld and Mark Kalse have secured financing for their startup Sowdan which will change the way we transfer money. Their startup Sowdan has secured a 2.1 million euro investment from investors including the founder of the Dutch energy company Pieter Schoen. Sowdan will use the investment to 24/7 to make real-time payments possible.
Sowdan will ensure that, for the first time in the Netherlands, real-time payments can be made between different banks. Real-time means that one can almost immediately send and may receive money 24 hours a day seven days a week regardless of weekends and holidays. In Sweden, a similar concept has been going for some time, and has been a huge success. Since the launch in Sweden 2.5 years ago approximately 50% of all Swedes now use such a real-time payment application. Similar examples can be seen in Denmark and England.
Pieter Schoen, founder of the Dutch energy company, on Sowdan: “Transfering money from a bank and receiving it directly to an account of another bank is still not possible in the Netherlands. Strange of course. There are even questions from within parliament on the subject. The time to change this is now. Sowdan allows consumers to use the service without requiring the use a card reader… Eventually, the mobile phone will replace the wallet.” The banks themselves have decided to wait with this and realise real-time payments in about four years. Currently Sowdan is in the testing phase. In addition to the initial investment of 2.1 Million Euros Schoen will focus himself early next year on a second financing round of € 20 million .
Maurits Grosfeld and Mark Kalse on behalf of Sowdan about bringing in Schoen as an investor, “Pieter Schoen like no other has shown us how to break open a tough market dominated by a few large players. Together with Peter, we are going to turn the payment system upside down!”
For more information on Sowdan visit their website.