Topi, a Berlin-based fintech company, announced that it received $45M in funding. This was made up of debt and equity funding; $15M of the equity portion was led by Creandum and Index Ventures. The Silicon Valley-based TriplePoint Capital also participated in the equity portion of the funding.
In the nine months since they secured $4.5M in a pre-seed round led by Index Ventures and Creandum, the company announced a partnership with GRAVIS. This is one of the top electronic retailers in Germany.
Jan Sperlich, GRAVIS’s managing director, says finding a partner like topi was something they had been searching for for a long time. According to Sperlich, topi is a game changer for them.
Topi’s platform allows business customers to subscribe to their IT equipment in real-time at the point of transaction. This eliminates the need for tedious paperwork and processes when renting hardware. Nearly half of the pilot phase customers who rented hardware through topi have returned to purchase additional products. We are pleased to work with topi and expand our offerings through their platform.
Topi has received funding from several investors in Silicon Valley, including TriplePoint Capital. Additionally, Creandum and Index Ventures have both invested in Topi. In total, these investors have provided nearly $50M in funding for Topi.
HaaS Model
Topi is an acronym for ‘Technology for Other People in Industry’. It was co-founded by Charlotte Pallua and Estelle Merle; it offers a hardware-as-a-service business model. This allows anyone to rent out their equipment — including smartphones, printers and robotic arms — to any manufacturer or retailer.
Estelle Merle and Charlotte Pallua, the co-founders of topi, explain that “as-a-service” models for hardware will become standard just like software. Their platform offers a subscription service that guarantees liquidity for businesses and ensures employees will never use outdated equipment. Additionally, they believe that every reseller and manufacturer must offer their products through a subscription model to stay relevant.
competitive.”
Topi builds infrastructure for hardware service providers to offer Hardware-as-a-Service, or HaaS. Their subscription option is built into the purchase flow, and real-time automatic vetting happens in the back end through topi’s fraud and risk engine.
Julia Andre and Jan Hammer from Index Ventures become members of the board.
Andre commends the speed with which topi inc. accomplished their goals. He also notes that businesses want to provide good results rather than buy expensive equipment. Instead, they can use topi’s hardware subscription service. Andre also mentions that topi removes the cost and layers of equipment leasing through history. He states that businesses can focus on what they do best thanks to topi. Additionally, Andre mentioned he was impressed by the team’s execution and believed they’d enable this shift at scale.
Simon Schmincke, a Creandum general partner, says the idea behind Topi is innovative and will provide benefits to all involved. He also says Topi will be a driving force in changing the landscape of business to business payments.
Topi has assembled a team that rarely exists in startups at their stage. It will all come down to their execution and sides decided to write about it.
