London fintech achieves ‘several major milestones’ following £9.6m funding round

Crezco, a London based fintech, has achieved ‘several major business milestones’ through securing funding and integrating its technology into global small business platform Xero.

Crezco has secured $12m (approx. £9.6m) in Series A funding from MMC Ventures and fintech-focused 13books capital to enable further growth. Additionally, its recent agreement with Xero has resulted in the technology partnership being integrated into its bill payment feature which will be launched to UK small businesses at the end of the month.

Underpinned by Crezco’s account-to-account payments API, Xero will be the first major small business cloud accounting software in the UK to offer on-platform bill payments using open banking.

The solution will allow small businesses to simply and securely manage, approve and pay their bills without leaving Xero’s platform. To achieve this, Crezco uses open banking, a relatively new technology leveraging account-to-account (A2A) payments.

In its new report, Xero has found that 50 per cent of UK small businesses are worried about their financial future amidst economic uncertainties. By leveraging Crezco’s technology and API, Xero’s new bill payments feature can help small businesses have a more accurate view of their cash flow.

Recently a multitude of open banking companies have sprung up, focusing on different market segments and the ability to bypass traditional payment providers’ fees.

Crezco differentiates itself by targeting B2B platforms highlighting the improved user experience. It is not about replacing card payment with something cheaper but replacing manual bank transfers with something more convenient.

Ralph Rogge, Founder and CEO at Crezco, commented: “A2A payments allows Crezco’s partners to move the point of payment from the bank to their platform. This is not just a domestic transfer solution. We connect real-time payments everywhere and it’s one of the most obvious examples of embedded payments.”

Oliver Richards, Partner at MMC, whose fintech investments include YuLife, Copper and TreasurySpring, added: “The agreement between Xero and Crezco is a great opportunity for open banking to address SME payments in the UK and, over time, internationally.

“It’s a transformational moment for the company and we’re excited to be backing Ralph and the team at this critical point in their growth.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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