New success in the Barcelona entrepreneurial ecosystem. The fintech Nomo, created by Banco Sabadell in 2018 through its digital business hub Innocells, has just been acquired by the Finnish listed group Talenom, specialized in offering financial, accounting, and human resources management services for SMEs and businesses.
Talenom has bought 100% of Nomo's capital from Innocells with the aim of boosting its international growth, which has positioned Spain as a strategic market due to its high number of SMEs, micro-SMEs, and freelancers with strong digitalization potential. Thus, in 2021, the Finnish group already landed in Spain with the purchase of Avalanding, a firm focused on tax and legal advice for foreign citizens. Now, it doubles down on its bet with the incorporation of Nomo, which allows it to directly target a segment of SMEs and freelancers with a potential market of 6 million clients.
The Finnish company plans to rely on Nomo to enter new countries, thus converting Barcelona into its hub for internationalization. The goal is to launch the business model developed by the Catalan startup in Italy, France, and Germany throughout 2023 and 2024. With a forecast of invoicing more than one hundred million euros this year, the Nordic group, led by Otto-Pekka Huhtal, currently obtains 83% of its revenues in its country of origin, Finland, while Sweden contributes 16% and only 1% comes from other countries.
Nomo is a digital platform that was born within Innocells to digitalize freelancers and also SMEs, offering them a comprehensive package of services to manage their accounting, finances, and taxes, as well as digital banking services, from a single provider. It operates with a monthly or annual subscription model and currently has 2,000 paying users. Although it is part of Banco Sabadell because it was conceived within its innovation hub, Nomo has always operated as an independent company with full autonomy, so its detachment from the bank will be a simple operation. The company is expected to continue operating under its brand and also maintain this degree of independence in its operation regarding the new owner, although it will clearly establish synergies with Talenom and accelerate its growth thanks to its financial support.
"Nomo was born less than three years ago and, since then, we have doubled our turnover every year. Passing into Talenom's hands clearly represents a validation of our project and the value we have generated in such a short time and which we can now scale," the fintech's CEO, Xavier Capellades, tells The New Barcelona Post. According to the executive, this operation is one of the "best examples of intrapreneurship success," as the company has been able to be born and develop until now thanks to the resources provided by Banco Sabadell's corporate venturing vehicle.
Xavier Capellades: "Passing into Talenom's hands clearly represents a validation of our project and the value we have generated in such a short time and which we can now scale"The executive, who had previously developed his professional career at Telefónica and Roche, will continue to lead Nomo in this new stage, in which he foresees strong growth. "Talenom has a strategic plan underway that contemplates a powerful investment to expand across Europe, where there is a great opportunity to accelerate the digitalization of SMEs and freelancers. They will use Nomo's platform to enter new countries and want to do so from Barcelona, where they have seen that there is a lot of talent thanks to the entrepreneurial ecosystem that has consolidated in the city," adds Capellades.
Based in the Utopicus coworking space in Gal·la Placídia square, Nomo now employs about 25 people and expects to increase the team to 32 professionals by the end of the year, the CEO anticipates.
"Nomo has developed a high-quality all-in-one digital platform that adapts very well to the market and has highly qualified personnel. We are really impressed with their innovative solutions and how they focus on customer experience. I am very excited about the opportunity to grow together because both teams share a passion for helping small freelancers and businesses. We are going to strive to make life easier for entrepreneurs in Spain!" said Otto-Pekka Huhtala, CEO of Talenom.
Otto-Pekka Huhtala: "I am very excited about the opportunity to grow together because both teams share a passion for helping small freelancers and businesses"Founded in 1972, Talenom offers a comprehensive package of services to facilitate the daily life of entrepreneurs, with digital and automated tools that include everything from accounting, payments, invoicing, and payroll management to various financial and payment services. With an average annual sales growth of 16% between 2005 and 2021, the company led by Otto-Pekka Huhtala employs a thousand people in Finland, Sweden, and Spain and listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, currently called Nasdaq Helsinki, with a valuation of around 400 million euros.
The Finnish company invoiced 83 million euros in 2021, 28% more, and has set itself the goal of reaching revenues of between 100 million and 110 million this year thanks to organic growth and the acquisition strategy it has launched and which has also led it to integrate five companies in Finland and Sweden.
From 'fintech' to neobank
Talenom's business model is more focused on operating as a management company for its clients ---handling accounting, payroll, or taxes---, while Nomo, in addition to being able to offer these services, goes further, as its platform allows managing day-to-day operations, allowing, for example, issuing invoices, preparing budgets, or digitizing expense tickets without having to resort to other applications. In addition, for two months now, Nomo also offers a bank account and a Mastercard debit card, so now, in addition to being a fintech, it is also a neobank.