Pennylane, Qonto, Agicap, Pleo and Mollie have something in common. They are all used Shift Somehow to manage integrations with other services. This relatively young startup, based in Belgium, has raised a seed round worth €2.3 million ($2.5 million at today’s exchange rate).
Many fintech startups rely on integrations to make their products work with their customers’ financial stack. They often end up creating countless links and partner integrations to keep financial information consistent across multiple products. As their integration ecosystem grows, they sometimes rely on an iPaaS (integration platform as a service) provider.
Chift essentially acts as an external integration expert. It works a little like Codes In the United Kingdom and to merge In the US, instead of building connectors one by one, Chift offers a set of standardized APIs compatible with the most popular financial instruments.
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 around invoicing tools, e-commerce platforms, and point-of-sale software.
Chift decided to focus on financial instruments first. “We integrate with the tools that generate the financial data,” co-founder and CEO Gautier Henroz told TechCrunch.
Unlike other industries, the fintech market is still relatively fragmented – each European country has its own accounting or invoicing platforms. But it can be useful to be able to access financial data from any SaaS product.
As more companies begin to rely on Chift, the startup can add more connectors. All Chift customers can benefit from these new integrations. As an added benefit of Chift, it creates a barrier to entry for newcomers.
“In Europe, this is where all the complexities lie. Things will be different in each country, especially regarding accounting, points of sale and billing tools,” Henroz said.
“We help our customers, who then sell their products or open new markets. “There is very little change because you are engaged, connected, connecting them to others and creating new opportunities for them,” he added later in the conversation.
Integration development is not a one-time project either. Companies release updates to their APIs, which can lead to crashes. Shift is responsible for maintaining these integrations. SaaS companies can focus on their core products instead of those integrations.
Investors in the seed round include: footnote (Peterjan Putin Fund), Jewelers (Felipe Teixeira da Mota Fund), Seed Fund and several business angels. “Our goal is to become the European leader,” Henroz said.