Introducing Adfin: Revolutionising Bill Payments

We are excited to announce our investment in Adfin, a fintech set to transform how bills are paid. Co-led by Visionaries Club and Index Ventures, with a €4.5m seed round, Adfin was founded by Tom Pope and Ciprian Diaconasu, who bring decades of experience in fintech and payments technology. In this round, we are also joined by exceptional angels such as Guillaume Pousaz (Checkout.com founder), Thijn Lamers (Adyen founding team) and Ferdinand Meyer (Moss co-founder).

The Founders: Vision and Expertise

Tom Pope and Ciprian Diaconasu are seasoned fintech experts with complementary backgrounds that position them uniquely to tackle the complexities of bill payments.

• Tom Pope: With a stellar career in the payments sector, Tom was instrumental in building the payments business at Tink, a leading open banking platform acquired by Visa for $2.2bn in 2022. His expertise in integrating innovative payment solutions with major financial institutions across Europe showcases his capability to scale fintech operations effectively.
• Ciprian Diaconasu: A technical visionary, Ciprian was a founding engineer at Mambu, where he built and led a 200-strong global developer team. Under his leadership, Mambu became a crucial player in the cloud banking space, supporting over 250 banks in 65 countries and achieving unicorn status.

Together, Tom and Ciprian combine deep commercial insights and technical prowess, allowing them to identify and solve the pain points around bill payments.

The Problem with Bill Payments

Despite the significant advancements in POS and e-commerce payments over the past ten years, which have become seamless through innovations like Apple Pay, bill payments remain stuck in the past. This is the case even though bill payments far outweigh such transactions in terms of number and volume. Consumers still deal with physical invoices from service providers like handymen, doctors, lawyers and the government on a daily basis. This outdated process frustrates users and consequently leads to many late or missed payments, which pose a significant cost for businesses.

Adfin’s Solution

Adfin is tackling this problem head-on with a flexible payment platform designed to streamline bill payments from beginning to end. The value proposition for businesses is straightforward: Get paid faster and without admin!

By integrating best-in-class open banking technology and card payment options, Adfin’s AI-powered system dynamically routes transactions to maximise success rates at the lowest cost. Businesses simply upload their invoices, and Adfin handles the distribution, payments and chasing the customer if necessary. For customers, the process is delightfully simple and seamless.

At Visionaries Club, we seek out visionary founders who are obsessed with solving real problems through technology. In Tom and Ciprian, we found a team with the experience and drive to revolutionise the most outdated form of payment — bill payments. Their clear vision for Adfin and proven ability to execute at scale made our decision to invest straightforward.

Join the Journey

We are thrilled to partner with Adfin and support their mission to bring bill payments into the modern age. Join us in welcoming Adfin to the Visionaries Club family, and stay tuned for more updates.

We are just at the beginning of this exciting journey with Adfin. If you are passionate about fintech and want to be part of a team that’s transforming the way we handle bill payments, get in touch with Adfin.