Pennylane, Qonto, Agicap, Pleo and Mollie have one thing in common: They all use Chift in some way to manage integrations with other services. And the relatively young Belgium-based startup just raised a seed round of €2.3 million ($2.5 million at current exchange rates).
Many fintech startups rely on integrations to create products that fit into customers’ financial stacks. We often build numerous connectors and partner integrations to ensure consistency of financial information across multiple products. As integration ecosystems grow, they sometimes rely on iPaaS providers (integration platform-as-a-service).
Chift essentially acts as a third-party integration expert. It works a bit similarly to Codat in the UK and Merge in the US. Instead of building connectors one by one, Chift provides a set of integrated APIs that are compatible with the most popular financial tools.
For example, Chift has developed an accounting API that is compatible with French accounting software from Sage, Cegid, and Pennylane. The company has also developed integrations for invoicing tools, e-commerce platforms, and point-of-sale software.
Chift decided to focus on financial tools first. “We are integrating with tools that generate financial data,” co-founder and CEO Gauthier Henroz told TechCrunch.
Unlike other industries, the fintech market is still relatively fragmented. Each European country has its own accounting or invoicing platform. However, it can be useful to have financial data accessible across all SaaS products.
As more companies start relying on Chift, the startup can add more connectors. All Chift customers will benefit from these new integrations. The added benefit of Chift creates a barrier to entry for newcomers.
“In Europe, all the complexity is there. Things will differ from country to country, especially when it comes to accounting, point of sale and invoicing tools,” Henroz said.
“We help our customers upsell or open new markets. “There is very little churn because we are integrated, connected, connecting with others and creating new opportunities,” he added later in the conversation.
Integrated development is also not a one-time project. Companies release updates to their APIs, which can lead to failures. Chift is responsible for maintaining this integration. SaaS companies can focus on their core products instead of these integrations.
Investors in the seed round include Entourage (Pieterjan Bouten's fund), Shapers (Philippe Teixeira da Mota's fund), Seeder Fund and several business angels. “Our goal is to become a leader in Europe,” Henroz said.
