Treyd, a fintech startup founded in Stockholm in 2019 by Peter Beckman and Sameh El-Ansary offers a special kind of financing for small businesses (SMEs). Known for ‘sell first, pay suppliers later’ financing for SMEs, Treyd’s helps businesses sell their products to customers before they have to pay for the products themselves. This way, small businesses can increase their sales, manage their money better, and have more money available to help their business grow.
The Swedish fintech Treyd just announced to have secured an additional $12 million as an extension of its March 2022 Series A funding round, bringing its total investment to $25 million. The funding was led by Swedish investment firm Nineyards Equity, a key player in Treyd’s Series A round (also an investor in micromobility startup Voi). It also attracted participation from Antler, a prominent early-stage investor, Zenith VC, and J12 Ventures.
Sameh El-Ansary recently spoke to TFN and provided insights into Treyd’s innovative approach that empowers retail businesses to sell products before settling payment with suppliers. It’s noteworthy that Treyd, originally founded in Sweden, expanded its operations to the UK in May in 2022 and the new capital will be used to grow in existing markets, invest in the core product offering, and work towards achieving profitability.
The founders’ story
Sameh El-Ansary, the co-founder holds a PhD from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. As a seasoned entrepreneur, he co-founded several startups in Stockholm, including HiveStreaming, a successful peer-to-peer enterprise video streaming company. His entrepreneurial journey also includes Racefox, an AI-based IoT platform for sports, and Scalable-Learning, a flipped classroom platform for universities competing with MOOCs. Further, he served as the CEO of Novelari, an Egyptian innovation accelerator for research-based startups.
He’s also passionate about blockchain technology says, “My background includes pioneering work in decentralised systems and a successful venture, Hivestreaming, renowned for peer-to-peer corporate communication and livestreaming technology. Returning to blockchain research, I sought a co-founder. With Peter Beckman, we recognised a market gap in cross-border payables finance, driven by SME demand. Leveraging my deep tech expertise, we tackled intricate data challenges, paving the way for Treyd’s inception.”
Eyes to resolve challenges faced by SMEs
Smaller businesses and merchants are often forced to pay suppliers upfront, months before the goods arrive and are ready to sell. In fact, 30% of world trade is paid cash-in-advance, causing a cash flow strain that holds businesses back and gets in the way of growth. With the intention to solve that and help fast-growing businesses keep momentum, Treyd lets merchants free up capital from the supply chain to hold more inventory, hire great staff, or invest in marketing.
“Our strategy has always been to leverage data to achieve risk reduction, speed, and simplicity for customers. Curiously, it means that our strategy works even better now that we operate on a larger scale and thus much more data to work with: we are now investing even more into AI and analytics, which helps us to achieve a positive spiral where larger scale means even better service, adds El-Ansary.
In the 15 months since its initial $10 million Series A investment, Treyd has expanded into the UK and throughout the Nordics, increased its customers sixfold to over 600, increased its team size threefold to over 60, and financed $149 million of purchases for fast-growing SMEs in Northern Europe.
Stefan Nordahl, Founder and CEO of Nineyards Equity, commented, “We’re impressed by what the team has achieved in this short period of time, especially in this market environment. Treyd’s ability to deliver cost-effective triple-digit growth while maintaining best-in-class default rates, is a proof point of their ability to navigate and execute, and also the true value-add Treyd brings to SMEs worldwide.”
Oscar S. Westergård, Partner at Antler, added, “Treyd is meeting real and urgent demand from brand and retail customers, and scaling rapidly in the Nordics and across Europe as a result. The success of Treyd demonstrates the continued growth potential for fintech companies to transform outdated financial practices and drive efficiencies and reduced costs for SMEs. Antler is proud to have backed Treyd founders Peter and Sameh from day zero. They are outstanding entrepreneurs, building world-class technology and a first rate team to realise their vision.”
Diversity: Key driver of innovation
Treyd, with its diverse founder Sameh El-Ansary, has placed a strong emphasis on diversity and inclusion. The company boasts they’ve a workforce of more than 30% of female including several senior executives such as the VP of Operations, Director of Finance, Head of Customer Support, and Director of Marketing.
Sameh elaborated on their approach, stating, “We have cultivated a highly diverse team across all the markets we operate in. Our Nordic and UK offices, for example, feature colleagues hailing from Iran, Hong Kong, Brazil, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and, of course, Sweden. In our Egyptian office, we prioritise the employment of local talent, aligning with my own background as a native of Egypt.”
