Traditional banking services are being disrupted by technology startups and Barcelona-based Kantox is playing a big role. Philippe Gelis, co-founder and CEO of the company, participated last week in a panel at the Next Bank Europe conference where he revealed some new figures that highlight Kantox’s surge in recent months.
More than 700 European clients are using the company’s platform to exchange currencies at lower fees than in traditional banking. “The lack of transparency is the main opportunity for fintech startups”, Philippe said when asked about why more consumers and entrepreneurs are joining the sector.
In 2014 $70 million are being exchanged through Kantox’s platform per month, a significant increase compared to the total of $250 million that the company handled in 2013. Kantox charges a variable commission depending on the amount being traded, from 0.09% to 0.29%, which would imply that the company is seeing net revenues of about $63,000 to $203,000 per month. And those numbers are growing at a 15% monthly rate.
This growth has been partly made possible by a €6.5 million Series A raised in February 2014, led by French firms IDInvest Partners and Partech Ventures and which also included the participation of local VCs Cabiedes & Partners. When questioned on whether the company might need a bigger cash infusion in coming months, Philippe smiled and said he hopes not, “but we’ll see”.
Kantox was founded in 2011 by Philippe Gelis, Antonio Rami and John Carbajal. Favorable legal frameworks forced the company to move its headquarters to London -the fintech capital of Europe- last year but most employees (41) are based in Barcelona. In previous interviews Philippe has claimed that the objective of the company is to go public, and that might happen sooner rather than later if they are able to keep up the growth.
