“SumUp is an organisation that’s about making small businesses thrive,” explained Luke Beavon, UK CEO of SumUp. “Our definition of small begins with nano and micro businesses, which could include seasonal merchants who transact for six weeks a year. We have expanded out to include some larger businesses and SMEs, and we've even got some enterprise customers like stadiums in the UK.

“We've broadened but the mission really is to give payment services and business account services to the smallest businesses.”

The products

SumUp has a wide range of products under its belt to aid its mission of giving payment and business account services to small businesses.

Beavon discussed SumUp’s many offerings: “Our core offering is what we call card acceptance or payment acceptance. We are still quite known in the market as the little white box that people tap their card on.

“We have some secondary products, which will depend on sectors, one of them is point of sale, which we acquired. We acquired two point of sale businesses over the last few years one in Europe, one in the UK. But we also have our own in house point of sale, which is more targeted at the small end at the sort of small merchants whereas the point of sales we acquired a more premium for more your hospitality businesses and brick and mortar restaurants.

“We then offer business accounts, which is not a bank account, but it has some likeness with bank accounts, so the ability to send and receive payments, BACS payments, standing orders, and manage your money within the app, which quite can be quite useful for smaller businesses that don't need comprehensive banking services. This is a free service that we offer.”

SumUp’s offerings don’t stop there, it also offers the ability to build an online store, a consumer app, and a self-service kiosk which is popular with hospitality businesses.

How to stay advanced

With a vast array of products and operating in an industry with constant innovation, as a corporate, SumUp has to adapt to keep up with the fintech startups in the space. Innovation in the company is focused on tailoring it to the areas in which it operates.

“Daniel and Mark, the co-founders, are fundamentally what I'd call product focused. They’re very interested in innovation in the products. That could be innovating our existing products to improve them, but also looking for other opportunities in the market.

“We’re global, and in areas such as Brazil, we are actually a bank. The UK is quite cashless adoption advanced, so products that promote cashless transactions are very, very popular. Whereas, in Germany, is less cashless, so we have to have PoS products that take cash. So it varies from market to market.”

Looking ahead at changing regulations, SumUp always has its eye on future developments within the sector. “In the UK, tipping legislation is changing, we're having to ensure that our products can meet the needs of our merchants. In the UK later this year, restaurants have to show that they give all their tips to their staff, so essentially, if you have anything that looks like a tip or appears as discretionary, you need to ensure that all goes to the staff. We're working on a PoS system that will be able to track staff hours to ensure that the amount that gets tipped then gets distributed, and ensures an audit trail.”

SumUp’s future goals

Last time Startups Magazine spoke to SumUp, the company was all about growth. But this focus has shifted slightly. Beavon commented: “Over the last 18 to 24 months we've looked to become more financially independent as a company, and that’s something we achieved with EBITDA positivity last year, and we’re on track to improve that this year.

“So, one of our internal goals is to be a sustainable, longer-term business, and to still continue growth. So, we have markets where the growth opportunity is larger than others. The UK is fairly mature, but other markets are less mature in terms of cashless adoption. We’ve recently launched in Australia, so we’re still looking at further global expansion.”

Advice for future fintech entrepreneurs

Beavon is well versed in the startup space, having been the CFO of PoS startup Goodtill, which was later acquired by SumUp. Having this experience well-places Beavon to dish out advice to entrepreneurs.

“I’m quite service led, so I’m of the belief that you need to be very active in understanding your merchants’ needs. if you've got 10 customers, or you've got 1000 customers, make sure you really understand what they're saying about the products and their feedback, because they can be really, really valuable to your future development. They will probably know more about how it works in the market than you do, and they will help shape your product.

“My advice would be, we'd be very much just keep a keen ear on what your customers are saying at all times.”

Startup attitude

Having adapted from a startup, to scaleup, to corporate, SumUp still prioritises its startup mentality. Beavon explained: “We still like ring fence startups within the company. For instance, the kiosk was operated like a startup, but within SumUp. What that means is that they almost apply for capital, like you would to a shareholder and board, but they are able to operate free from the restrictions of a large corporate, and once they show success, we begin to integrate them into the company.

“We call it ‘founders mentality’ at SumUp. We try and keep that.

“We're still strong believers that everyone should act like a founder in the business. If you’ve got an idea, you can go straight to the CEO, and you can share it, and he will listen. You you get these little pockets of startups that work and operate within the business and it's quite a cool feature of SumUp.”

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2024 issue of Startups Magazine. Click here to subscribe

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