FT Tech Champions win caps a busy year of progress for Stenn

Our recent recognition in the FT's Tech Champions series, winning in the Banking & Payments category, caps off another busy year for Stenn. This fantastic acknowledgement from the business world concludes 12 months where we surpassed the huge milestone of providing $10bn in financing to SMEs across the globe. Not only that, but we've also significantly improved our product offering, expanded the business with a series of top-class hires, received $50 million of investment from our partners at Centerbridge, and we're still just getting started!  

The FT Tech Champions accolade was particularly rewarding as it identifies European companies that are using technology to meet today's business challenges across a range of sectors. It was humbling to win such an award and be featured alongside true innovators from other industries, giving some important recognition to what Stenn has achieved so far. It also followed recognition from the FT earlier in the year, when we were listed within their FT1000 list, as one of Europe's fastest-growing companies. 

These recognitions also gave me a chance to reflect on our journey, from the conception of Stenn, to its role today in democratising access to capital. From an early stage, I could see that there was a vast swathe of small businesses being underserved by the banks, that had an appetite for a quick and simple solution to help with working capital and grow their businesses; looking at how digital financing was evolving, I then saw the opportunity for a platform to bridge that funding gap and connect those SMEs with global financial institutions. And so Stenn began. 

2022 has been a landmark year for Stenn, which involved a $50m equity funding round with renowned US investor, Centerbridge, at a $900m valuation in April, which followed hot on the heels of our partnership with Citi, announced in March. 

We have also continued to rapidly expand our team, bringing in Bilal Bajwa as our first Chief Product Officer over the summer and more recently hiring Fozia Raja as our first Chief People & Culture Officer. This is alongside dozens of other hires across our global team.

It's been another busy year and the Stenn team has done an incredible job in driving the business forward. We could also not have achieved all of this without our customers and partners, to who we are extremely grateful. After such a busy year, the temptation is to take our foot off the gas, but that's not in our DNA. We're really excited about what's coming in 2023 as we continue to develop the business at pace and can't wait to show you what's next...

Greg Karpovsky
CEO and Founder of Stenn