Digital banking expert Holvi sets its sights on UK market
The business aims to use its innovative digital book-keeping tools to support its continued growth by adding UK businesses to its existing customer base.
Holvi, a digital banking specialist for self-employed business owners, has announced it is expanding into its third core market – the United Kingdom.
The launch will see Holvi expand its European presence to the UK, adding it to its other core markets of Germany and Finland and further operating countries like Ireland, Belgium, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
The business aims use its innovative digital book-keeping tools to support its continued growth by adding UK businesses to its existing customer base.
Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, and acquired by BBVA in 2016, Holvi seeks to create financial efficiency for sole traders and freelancers by saving them time and helping them to succeed with a service that is as simple as possible. It does this by removing both friction – such as manually inputting receipt entries on laborious expense spreadsheets – and jargon and complicated calculations required for tax and invoice management.
The all-in-one payment account comes with a business Mastercard and helps users to stay on top of the ins and outs of their finances at speed. It is equipped with operational tools that allow the business owner to set up their account entirely digitally, take snapshots of expense receipts, send professional invoices easily, categorise their expenses for bookkeeping and gain real-time business insights – all in one place, all online with no paperwork.
Regarding the UK market, the company refers to the latest figures from the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy showing that 76% of SMEs have no employees, which means a significant proportion of individuals are running their businesses completely solo. Holvi’s ambition is to actively support as many of those as possible.
Holvi is able to advise small business owners on all aspects of running their business, from setting up a company, through to tips on how to grow, manage cash flow and hire great people.
Holvi was co-founded in 2011 by entrepreneurs Tuomas Toivonen and Mikko Teerenhovi. It was acquired by BBVA in 2016 and is authorised to operate across the European Economic Area (EEA) under the Payment Services Directive by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA).
