Hamburg-based Receeve raises €4 million seed to digitally transform the debt collections industry

Hamburg-based Receeve raised €4 million in seed funding from Mangrove Capital Partners and Speedinvest to digitally transform Europe’s debt industry. This round comes within a year of a pre-seed fundraise, €1 million from Seedcamp and other angel investors. Founded in 2019 by two American former VCs, Receeve offers a digital debt servicing platform that replaces outdated processes. “We want to bring collections back in-house to effectively and dynamically address customers with digital and personalized processes,” says founder and CEO, Paul Jozefak. “Our clients have historically outsourced workflows which were too expensive to address internally, and rightfully so. You can now significantly minimize customer churn and offer your customers personalized channels to remedy their problem.” Minimising churn is key, he says, since customer acquisition costs have risen significantly — while said customers can freely switch providers. So, Jozefak and his co-founder Michael Backes aim to build a technology-first business with a customer-centric approach. With Receeve, debt collection “becomes part of your customer service strategy.” Firms can communicate with their customers digitally, on any device, and customers have the option of self-service to manage their issues. 

The result is lower costs and higher recovery rates, compared to incumbent (and depersonalised) collections agencies or clunky case management software. “The time is ripe to disrupt the collections industry. It has been overlooked or ignored for far too long,” said Hans-Juergen Schmitz, partner at Mangrove Capital Partners. “At the same time, it is a very large addressable market that is facing both performance and regulatory pressures. We now have a perfect opportunity for large enterprises to streamline their back-office processes, keeping customers happy. And having worked with Paul in the past, I am confident that he and his team are poised to lead the industry in a new direction.”

Commenting on the round, Stefan Klestil of Speedinvest said: “By investing in Receeve, we are confident that we are backing a team ready to become market leaders in collections. The founders, who have already built a collections business, amongst others, are the strongest team we have seen addressing this opportunity in Europe. Their combination of industry and technical expertise leads me to believe that they can deliver on their vision and leverage the network as well as background that we as Speedinvest bring to the table.”