Topi, a Berlin-based fintech company, announced that it has raised $45M in a combination of equity and debt, of which $15M was equity led by Index Ventures and Creandum, with participation from Silicon Valley-based TriplePoint Capital.
The announcement comes nine months after raising $4.5M in a pre-seed funding round co-led by Index Ventures and Creandum. Besides, the company has also announced a strategic partnership with GRAVIS, one of the leading electronic retailers in Germany.
“This is a total game changer for us. We have been looking for a partner like topi for a long time,” says Jan Sperlich, Managing Director of GRAVIS.
“We are very excited that our business customers can now easily subscribe to their IT equipment in real-time at the point of transaction, without tedious processes and bureaucratic paperwork. In our pilot phase, around half of our customers who rented hardware through topi have already come back for additional products. We look forward to continuing to work with topi and further expand our offer through their platform.”
To date, topi has raised nearly $50M in funding from several investors, including Index Ventures, Creandum, and Silicon Valley-based TriplePoint Capital, as well as founders and early employees of Adyen, Stripe, N26, HelloFresh, Cloudflare, Personio, and others.
Offers HaaS model
Founded by Charlotte Pallua and Estelle Merle, topi offers a hardware-as-a-service business model, allowing any retailer or manufacturer to rent out their equipment, from smartphones, printers to robotic arms and industry-specific machinery.
“The as-a-service models that have long been established for software will also become the standard for hardware” explain Estelle Merle & Charlotte Pallua, co-founders of topi. “Our subscription platform will ensure businesses’ liquidity is protected, while employees never have to work with outdated equipment again. We strongly believe that every reseller and manufacturer will need to offer their products through a subscription model in order to stay
competitive.”
With the subscription option embedded in the purchase flow, topi is building the rails for B2B merchants to offer Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS). In the back end, topi’s fraud and risk engine vets eligible buyers automatically and in real-time.
Jan Hammer and Julia Andre, Partners at Index Ventures, join the topi board.
Commenting on the announcement, Andre says, “Businesses want to focus on delivering great outcomes, rather than get bogged down in the complexity of buying equipment outright. topi removes the historical layers of providers and costs involved in leasing equipment, and offers a hardware subscription solution for merchants that provides unparalleled terms to their customers. We have been impressed by the speed of execution by the topi team and believe they are uniquely positioned to enable this shift at scale.”
“We believe that topi will be one of the driving forces in reshaping the world of B2B payments” says Simon Schmincke, General Partner at Creandum, who is also joining the board. “The idea is innovative, fills a void that has existed for far too long, and provides benefits for all
sides. In the end, it will all be about execution. And to that end, topi has put together an incredible team that we rarely see in companies at this stage.”
