French fintech Qonto is one of Europe’s top fintechs in the business banking space.
Founded in 2016 by Alexandre Prot and Steve Anavi, Qonto provides banking and financial services to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and freelancers.
The company has raised over $600m in funding from investors to date, including Valar Ventures, Tiger Global and DST Global and last raised a Series D funding round in 2022 at a €4.4bn valuation.
Qonto operates in over eight markets in Europe, including its native France and has over 500k customers. Annual turnover is in the range of several hundred million euros, two sources previously told Sifted (Qonto declined to confirm at the time), and it’s expected to be profitable this year.
That’s made it a formidable competitor to other fintechs across Europe catering to the SMB market, including Tide and Revolut’s business banking arm.
Using company information and insider knowledge, Sifted has mapped out the key individuals who hold power at Qonto.
Alexandre Prot, chief executive officer and cofounder
A former associate at consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Prot is the founding CEO of Qonto. He founded electronic cigarette company Smokio with his Qonto cofounder Steve Anavi. Smokio was later sold to a Fortune 500 company, but it was during this time, Prot noticed how antiquated the banking services available for SMBs were, according to a 2017 interview.
Steve Anavi, president and cofounder
Steering the ship alongside Prot is Anavi, who occupies the role of president at Qonto. Anavi previously worked as a senior consultant at Deloitte before heading into a director of operations role at coupon marketplace Groupon.
Internally, it’s understood Anavi has an equal level of sway as his cofounder, with the title of president indicating similar levels of influence to that of a co-CEO. A key delineation is how he spends his time. Anavi largely oversees product development while CEO Prot largely leads the company’s key externally-facing functions — speaking to investors and liaising with the fintech’s board.
Anita Szarek, chief financial officer
Anita Szarek joined Qonto in June 2023 from Danish expenses platform Pleo where she also headed up financial operations.
Along with the cofounders, it’s understood Szarek is one of the key decision makers behind Qonto’s acquisition strategy. Qonto is one of the brand-name fintechs looking to flex its acquisition muscles and has so far acquired accounting fintech Regate and German competitor Penta.
“In our eight markets, we will remain interested in potential targets for acquisitions, whether to reinforce our client or technology base, or to add a product that can reinforce our offer,” Prot previously told Sifted.
Jordi Gudiol, chief operating officer
Jordi Gudiol is Qonto’s chief operating officer. Beginning his career as an engineer in supplier production management at car company Toyota, Gudiol later held roles at McKinsey & Company and aerospace manufacturer Cobham.
His most recent role before Qonto was chief customer officer at travel subscription platform eDreams ODIGEO.
Aymeric Augustin, chief technology officer
Aymeric Augustin leads the technology function at Qonto. A graduate of Paris’ Ecole Polytechique, Augustin previously managed data, digital and informations systems at French media conglomerate Canal+ Group. He is also the cofounder and former chief technology officer of insurtech Otherwise.
Heidrun Luyt, chief growth officer
Heidrun Luyt joined Qonto in October last year, making her one of the newest additions to Qonto’s power players. Formerly chief marketing officer at SaaS unicorn Pipedrive, Luyt oversees Qonto’s growth division at a time of rapid expansion for the fintech. Last year, the French neobank announced it was expanding to four new markets (Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal), doubling the number of countries it has presence in.
Sarah Ben Allel, chief people officer
Sarah Ben Allel heads up people operations at Qonto and is one of the fintech’s longest serving power players aside from its founders. Ben Allel joined Qonto in 2017 as the first member of its human resources team. She became the company’s chief people office in January last year and has been with the fintech for more than seven years.
Maxime Laot, chief risk and compliance officer
An ex-banking supervisor at the European Central Bank, Maxime Laot joined Qonto in 2020 as its head of risk before his ascension to chief risk and compliance officer in January last year.
Qonto isn’t a fully licensed bank and instead operates as a payment institution, meaning Qonto has to protect its customers’ money by separating it from its own cash flow. Qonto partners with fully licensed banks in order to fence off customer funds.
Albertine Lecointe, VP of product
Long-time employee Albertine Lecointe became Qonto’s VP of product in March this year after holding roles in strategy and project management. Similarly to chief people officer Ben Allel, Lecointe joined Qonto in 2017 and has spent more than seven years with the company.
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