Holvi, the digital banking service for self-employed and small businesses, has officially launched in the UK today.
Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, the launch sees Holvi expand its European presence with plans to build on the 200,000 users currently saving up to 10 hours a month on time spent managing business finances.
Holvi’s CEO, Antti-Jussi Suominen commented: “We are excited to be launching in the UK today regardless of what shape or form Brexit takes. The UK is one of the most important markets for fintechs and has always been known as a nation of sole traders.
We have years of experience supporting this specific type of microbusiness and our research shows that our users can save up to three weeks of valuable working time every year by automating routine accounting tasks with our service.”
Holvi’s mission is to help self-employed, sole traders, freelancers and small business owners succeed financially, by providing an easy-to-use service that saves them time and money.
It does this by removing friction – such as manually inputting receipt data to spreadsheets – and doing away with complicated calculations needed for tax and invoice management.
Holvi’s all-in-one payment account is equipped with operational tools that allow business owners to set up their accounts digitally, take snapshots of expense receipts, quickly create and send professional invoices, get notified when they receive payments, categorise expenses for bookkeeping and see how their business is doing in real time – all in one place, with no paperwork.
Suominen continued: “We want to support every single sole trader and freelancer in the UK. They are the backbone of the economy, and we genuinely believe that the banking market for microbusinesses is ineffective – it simply doesn’t work for a lot of businesses.
“For most people, their business is personal and therefore they need a solution tailored for their needs – something Holvi delivers.”
The digital banking service was co-founded in 2011 by Tuomas Toivonen, who experienced the frustration of balancing a core ‘job’ and managing all the finances. He developed Holvi as a solution to these issues – and the result is a company based on a foundation of understanding and empathy with its users.