# Qonto: Europe's largest SMB fintech goes for a banking licence > Qonto is Europe's largest SMB fintech: 600,000 clients, profitable since 2023 and a French banking licence application with a decision due in 2026. Author: Ksenia Voronova — Lawyer, Family Office (https://wiki.private.law/en/authors/voronova) Last modified: 2026-08-14T13:14:00.000Z Canonical: https://wiki.private.law/en/qonto Topics: banking Jurisdictions: france, eu Functional tags: neobank, corporate-banking Product tags: banking Semantic tags: neobank, corporate-banking, banking --- For context, read this profile alongside the [neobank overview](https://wiki.private.law/en/neobanks) and the [financial-licensing map](https://wiki.private.law/en/fintech-license-map). It is a case study in a licensed or partner-bank business model, not a product recommendation. Primary source: [Qonto legal disclosures](https://legal.qonto.com/en). Qonto is a Paris-based business finance platform used by over 600,000 companies across eight European markets. In July 2025 the company filed with the ACPR an application for a full banking licence — credit institution status in place of its current payment institution licence — and by the summer of 2026 the process had, according to Tech EU, advanced markedly further: the regulator is giving positive feedback and approval is possible within six months. For the European companies inside our clients' structures this means something simple: a familiar operating account is preparing to grow into a full bank with deposit guarantees and lending of its own. In parallel Qonto has become one of the operators of the French e-invoicing reform — an accredited PDP platform — which from September 2026 makes it part of the mandatory document infrastructure. ## Background The founders, Alexandre Prot and Steve Anavi, are school friends who built Smokio, a maker of "smart" electronic cigarettes, in 2013 and sold it in 2015. Running Smokio, both suffered through business banking — slow onboarding, hidden fees, unresponsive support — and in April 2016 they put Qonto together. The French launch followed in 2017. What comes next is a classic European trajectory with a rare ending. In January 2022 Tiger Global and TCV invested €486m at a valuation of €4.4bn \(≈$5bn\) — one of the largest rounds in French tech. The company has been profitable since 2023 and doubled its profit in 2024 on revenue growth of ≈30% — a combination almost no European neobank can show. Expansion came through acquisitions and launches. In 2022 Qonto absorbed the German competitor Penta with its ≈50,000 clients — the migration was completed long ago, and the domain Penta today simply redirects to [qonto.com/de](http://qonto.com/de). In 2024 it bought the accounting fintech Regate and in the same year opened Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal in addition to France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The team runs to over 1,600 people, and the stated goal is 2m clients by 2030. ## Products and pricing The grid as of August 2026 \([qonto.com/pricing](https://qonto.com/en/pricing), per month excluding VAT on annual billing, with a free first month as a trial\): - **solo segment:** Basic — €9 \(30 transfers, one physical and two virtual cards\), Smart — €19 \(100 transfers, a sub-account, a cash-flow dashboard, accountant access\), Premium — €39 \(200 transfers, 4 sub-accounts, priority 7/7 support, 0.56% FX fee\); - **teams:** Essential — €49 \(9 sub-accounts, 250 transfers, unlimited members\), Business — €109 \(29 sub-accounts, 500 transfers, auto-sync with accounting systems, EBICS\), Enterprise — €199 \(99 sub-accounts, 10,000 transfers, 30 physical cards\); - **add-ons:** Invoice Automation — €12, Project Tracking — €20, Team Spend Controls — €39 a month. The cards are Mastercard at three levels: One is included in every plan, while the advanced Plus and X, with higher limits \(up to €200k a month on X\) and insurance, are bought separately. Since April 2026 AI agents have worked across all plans, including Basic: The Operator executes operations on a text command — issuing cards with limits, uploading up to 50 invoices in a batch, scheduling transfers — while The Analyst answers questions about transaction data. The remunerated account launched on 6 October 2025 with a promotional rate of 4% and base rates of 1–2%; by August 2026 the terms had improved: 5% AER for the first two months, then 1.25% \(Smart, Premium, Essential\), 1.75% \(Business\) and 2.25% \(Enterprise\). The cap on the interest-bearing balance is €50k on Smart, €100k on Premium and €200k on the team plans; activation requires at least five operations a month. The credit block has two storeys. Qonto's own [Pay Later](https://qonto.com/en/financing/pay-later) has grown from its launch limit \(March 2024\) of €50k to €100k: supplier invoices spread over 3, 6 or 9 months from 0.62% a month, for clients with at least six months of history. A credit card with a limit of up to €15k a month \(18.88% APR\) and an overdraft of up to €5k \(17.5% APR\) have been added; a [marketplace of partners](https://qonto.com/en/financing) covers the rest — Defacto \(working capital\), Karmen \(growth financing\), Edebex \(receivables purchase\), Fleet \(equipment\) — with amounts of up to €1m historically issued through the platform. E-invoicing occupies a floor of its own. In September 2024 the DGFiP entered Qonto into the PDP register — the accredited platforms of the French electronic invoicing reform; client invoices already sync in the Factur-X format. From 1 September 2026 every French company is obliged to receive electronic invoices, and from September 2027 small businesses are obliged to issue them — Qonto sells the account and the compliance infrastructure as a single package. ## Competitive landscape The rivals fall into three types. Pan-European fintechs: Amsterdam-based Finom raised €115m in June 2025 and is targeting a million clients by the end of 2026; Revolut Business leans on the scale of the group and its Lithuanian banking licence, winning on multi-currency and losing on local accounting and tax compliance. Local players: in France there is Shine, which Société Générale sold to Denmark's Ageras, while in Italy Hype and the digital wrappers of traditional banks compete for SMBs. Pennylane is a story of its own: an accounting platform with 800,000 corporate clients and a $4.25bn valuation, it is entering Qonto's territory from the accounting side, offering banking through its partner Swan. The integration between them remains in place while competition intensifies — both are building an "all-in-one" for SMBs. Against that backdrop Qonto's position is unique: it is the only large player that is simultaneously profitable, focused on the eurozone and holding the full stack — the account, accounting, PDP status and a track toward a banking licence. ## What it means for the client For a group with European operating companies, Qonto is the base account for day-to-day work: SEPA and SWIFT payments, local IBANs, team cards with limits, invoicing and accounting in one interface. Onboarding is entirely online and designed for companies registered in the eight markets of presence: a French SAS, a German GmbH, an Italian Srl or a Spanish SL inside a client's structure goes through as standard, usually within a matter of days. There is no direct route here for a non-resident holding company — the practical path runs through a local operating subsidiary, with non-resident owners passing standard KYC at beneficial owner level. For a group's French companies there is a separate argument: the 2026 e-invoicing reform will force the choice of a PDP platform anyway, and combining it with the bank saves one integration. Once the licence is granted, state-guaranteed deposits and lending from Qonto's own balance sheet will be added: there will be noticeably fewer reasons to keep a second bank for operations. Until that point, large balances are best spread across several institutions. ## Under the hood Today Qonto is a payment institution supervised by the ACPR: client money is protected by safeguarding mechanics, meaning it is segregated from the company's own funds, while balance-sheet products live with partners. The economics are subscriptions plus interchange plus payment fees: a SaaS model with a fintech superstructure, which is precisely what allowed it to reach profitability without credit risk on its own balance sheet. The product machine runs on an "80/20" model: 80% of the functionality is common to all eight markets, and the remaining 20% is local customisation for each country's tax and accounting regimes. Since 2026 the company has called itself AI-native: alongside the client-facing The Operator and The Analyst, the back office is held up by internal agents Moshi \(support\), Germi \(risk monitoring\) and Tolki \(localisation\). The licence application is a deliberate change of construction. CEO Prot puts it plainly: being a bank is more profitable than being a payment institution — deposit funding and credit margin stay in-house and dependence on partners disappears. The price is capital, years of approvals and a permanent supervisory burden from the ACPR and the ECB; for a fintech builder this is the reference case of the "EMI/PI versus bank" fork in the road. ## Regulation and status The chronology: April 2016 — founding; 2017 — launch; payment institution status under the ACPR — the current base; 2023 — reaching profitability; September 2024 — PDP registration; July 2025 — the credit institution licence application; July 2026 — positive feedback from the regulator and a decision expected within six months. At the time of filing the company itself cautiously allowed for several years — reality is so far running ahead of the conservative plan. Until the status changes, deposit and credit products operate through partners or within narrow regulatory limits, and the state deposit guarantee \(in France, the FGDR up to €100k\) does not as a general rule extend to Qonto accounts: protection of balances rests on safeguarding. > ⚠️ **Risks.** There is no banking licence yet: "six months to approval" is a press estimate from the summer of 2026, and the final word belongs to the ACPR and the ECB. Until the status changes, balances are protected by a payment institution's safeguarding mechanics, without a state deposit guarantee — large sums are best spread across several institutions. The 5% promotional rate runs for two months, after which the yield falls to 1.25–2.25% with balance caps of €50–200k. Credit limits are modest — Pay Later up to €100k — and partner financing depends on the appetite of the lenders themselves. > 🍓 Qonto is Europe's largest SMB fintech: over 600,000 clients across eight markets, profitable since 2023, valued at €4.4bn from the Tiger Global and TCV round. Tariffs run from €9 to €199 a month plus add-ons, with a remunerated account paying up to 5% on promotion, an in-house Pay Later of up to €100k and a marketplace of credit partners. Two key bets in 2026: the banking licence \(applied for in July 2025, with a decision expected in the coming quarters\) and PDP status in the French e-invoicing reform. For the client this is an operating account for EU companies that is growing into a bank; for the builder, a reference case of the move from payment institution to credit institution in pursuit of credit margin and its own funding. ## FAQ ### Is Qonto a bank yet? For now the company operates as a payment institution supervised by the French ACPR. The credit institution licence application was filed in July 2025; by July 2026 the regulator had given positive feedback, and the press cites a horizon of around six months to approval. ### How much does Qonto cost? As of August 2026 the line-up runs from €9 a month \(Basic for solo entrepreneurs\) to €199 \(Enterprise for teams\), excluding VAT on annual billing, with a free first month as a trial. The advanced Plus and X cards, invoicing automation \(€12\), project tracking \(€20\) and spend controls \(€39\) are bought separately. ### Is money in a Qonto account protected? Client funds are segregated through safeguarding — the mandatory mechanism for EU payment institutions. A state deposit guarantee will appear only after the banking licence, so large balances are best diversified. ### Is Qonto suitable for a non-resident structure? The platform onboards companies registered in its eight markets of presence, from France to Portugal. For a holding company outside the EU the practical path is an account for the group's local operating company; non-resident beneficial owners pass standard KYC. ### What does Qonto offer for the French 2026 e-invoicing reform? Qonto is registered by the DGFiP as a PDP — an accredited electronic invoicing platform — and invoices already move in the Factur-X format. From 1 September 2026 receiving electronic invoices is mandatory for all French companies, and from 2027 small businesses are obliged to issue them — Qonto clients cover both requirements inside the account itself. --- ## FAQ ### Is Qonto a bank yet? For now the company operates as a payment institution supervised by the French ACPR. The credit institution licence application was filed in July 2025; by July 2026 the regulator had given positive feedback, and the press cites a horizon of around six months to approval. ### How much does Qonto cost? As of August 2026 the line-up runs from €9 a month (Basic for solo entrepreneurs) to €199 (Enterprise for teams), excluding VAT on annual billing, with a free first month as a trial. The advanced Plus and X cards, invoicing automation (€12), project tracking (€20) and spend controls (€39) are bought separately. ### Is money in a Qonto account protected? Client funds are segregated through safeguarding — the mandatory mechanism for EU payment institutions. A state deposit guarantee will appear only after the banking licence, so large balances are best diversified. ### Is Qonto suitable for a non-resident structure? The platform onboards companies registered in its eight markets of presence, from France to Portugal. For a holding company outside the EU the practical path is an account for the group's local operating company; non-resident beneficial owners pass standard KYC. ### What does Qonto offer for the French 2026 e-invoicing reform? Qonto is registered by the DGFiP as a PDP — an accredited electronic invoicing platform — and invoices already move in the Factur-X format. From 1 September 2026 receiving electronic invoices is mandatory for all French companies, and from 2027 small businesses are obliged to issue them — Qonto clients cover both requirements inside the account itself. --- ## Factual claims - Qonto is a Paris-based business finance platform used by over 600,000 companies across eight European markets. - The founders, Alexandre Prot and Steve Anavi, are school friends who built Smokio, a maker of "smart" electronic cigarettes, in 2013 and sold it in 2015. - The grid as of August 2026 (qonto.com/pricing, per month excluding VAT on annual billing, with a free first month as a trial): - The cards are Mastercard at three levels: One is included in every plan, while the advanced Plus and X, with higher limits (up to €200k a month on X) and insurance, are bought separately. - The product machine runs on an "80/20" model: 80% of the functionality is common to all eight markets, and the remaining 20% is local customisation for each country's tax and accounting regimes.