Mollie Taps Former Klarna Tech Chief as CEO

Payments provider Mollie has named a former Klarna executive as its chief executive.

Koen Köppen had been serving as Mollie’s chief technology officer since May, the Dutch company said in a Thursday (Jan. 26) news release, after holding the same role for five years at the Swedish buy now, pay later (BNPL) company.

As CEO, Köppen will “drive our mission to simplify complex financial services and level the playing field for small- and medium-sized ecommerce companies,” the release said.

The company notes that Köppen’s appointment is contingent on an OK by the Dutch Central Bank and the advice of the Mollie Works Council. He will replace Shane Happach, who is “leaving the company to take up a leadership role in Asia.”

As CTO, Köppen helped launch the company’s Mollie Capital offering as it moved into financial services industries last September, the release said.

Mollie Capital provides cash advances to eligible small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), with all processing happening from the company’s dashboard, and funds often available the same day.

“With lengthy, cumbersome requirements to get financing, [SMBs] have been continually underserved by the big banks. Mollie Capital will ensure they can access fast, flexible and easy funding that they need to flourish,” Happach said at the time.

Access to working capital remains a critical pain point for SMBs, PYMNTS wrote last week. While larger companies often have long held relationships with financial institutions, SMBs often need extra help accessing capital. These cash flow concerns can result in SMBs needing more time to pay their suppliers, further affecting their creditworthiness and ability to tap into traditional lines of capital.

For most SMBs, “the biggest challenge to their growth is really credit access,” Pushkar Mukewar, CEO and co-founder of digital trade finance company Drip Capital, told PYMNTS. “It’s a pretty large segment of the market which remains somewhat underserved or traditionally overlooked by banks — they’ve never been a main focus for traditional finance.”

That’s in keeping with the PYMNTS report “Digital Banking Rises To Meet SMB Needs,” which shows three-quarters SMBs that need access to working capital are the most likely to use a digital-only bank as their chief financial institute.

“Our focus is to offer a fully digital experience throughout the customer lifecycle, there’s a lot of focus on automation and leveraging technology at the back end of these transactions, to process and underwrite them,” Mukewar said.

For all PYMNTS EMEA coverage, subscribe to the daily EMEA Newsletter.