Accel backs Vilnius startup with $65 million

Lithuanian fintech startup that provides advanced account-to-account (A2A) payment infrastructure to replace costly card transactions, Kevin. has raised $65 million in funding.

The Series A round was led by Accel, with participation from Eurazeo and existing investors, including OTB Ventures, Speedinvest, OpenOcean and Global Paytech Ventures. Other angel investors including Harry Stebbings, founder of 20VC; Ilkka Paananen, CEO and co-founder of Supercell; Amitabh Jhawar, former CEO of Venmo also participated.

The Series A funding comes just six months after the company secured its $10 million seed round and brings the total funding raised to $77 million.

Founded in 2018, kevin. offers innovative and convenient payment solutions that eliminate unnecessary intermediaries in the payment process. The company has taken advantage of the huge opportunity presented by open banking. Recently, the startup also dabbled in payments at point-of-sale terminals in physical stores by introducing NFC A2A payment solution with a seamless user experience comparable to that of a card payment.

Pavel Sokolovas, co-founder and COO of kevin. said: “When creating a game-changing product and growing a startup, time is precious. The Accel team understood this and their deep expertise in fintech gave them an understanding of our business and what we were trying to accomplish from the start. Our partnership has therefore progressed rapidly and we are excited for the future.”

Tadas Tamosiunas, co-founder and CEO, kevin. added: “Since the implementation of the A2A in-store payment solution is fast and cost-effective, we expect rapid deployment and scale. By the end of the year, we are aiming for 35% coverage of payment terminals at points of sale in Europe and we hope to reach more than 85% by the end of 2023. This is equivalent to the current coverage of major card systems.”