Azimo + European Investment Bank = 20m€

Azimo is a money transfer service that has headquarters in London but has the majority of its staff based in Poland. Now it has secured €20 million in debt from the European Investment Bank (EIB), the lending arm of the European Union.

The loan will be used by Azimo to support its expansion, which will mostly include the development of its automated payments platform. The firm will also increase staff numbers at its Kraków HQ. Michael Kent, founder, and chairman of Azimo, says that the firm is excited to have the EIB’s support.

Michael explains the goals of Azimo: “While Europe is the largest international payments market in the world, it is poorly served by legacy providers, so slow delivery times and very high costs are the norm for European consumers and businesses. We are building a European payments champion with near-instant delivery at super low cost.”

Meanwhile, Azimo securing a line of credit from the EIB is interesting in the context of Brexit. The company is very typical of European tech scale-ups that have teams split across the U.K. and continental Europe, born in part out of the U.K.’s membership of the EU and freedom of movement, which, as of this week, came to an end.

“I have a very international team in London too and always will. I want to be able to keep them here and augment that team with top talent. Skilled tech workers are super mobile and they don’t come to London for the weather or the living costs but for the opportunities. The noises coming from government and eventually the policies are super important in framing how that target audience thinks”. Adds Michel Kent.