Kevin

Market position

kevin. positions itself as an alternative to card schemes in the A2A payments segment, claiming at the time of its Series A to be the only company on the market with a working technical solution for A2A payments at electronic point of sale. Coverage noted that POS terminal incumbent Worldline was working on its own A2A acceptance solution, and that larger payments players including potential acquirers had approached the company; kevin. declined strategic investors in order to remain platform-neutral.

Its stated differentiators are direct, API-based bank integrations that bypass card intermediaries to reduce transaction costs, and an NFC A2A solution that works with physical POS terminals — an area where management claimed no competing technical solution existed at the time and where incumbents would need years to build one.

Technology

The company built API-based integrations directly with banks, using open banking access, to initiate account-to-account transfers. Sources note that pre-existing A2A infrastructure was largely non-API-based and hard to extend, and that kevin. spent years building bank integrations against initial skepticism that such APIs were feasible. It also developed an NFC-based A2A payment method for physical POS terminals.

Go-to-market

Direct integration of its payment infrastructure with merchants' online, mobile and point-of-sale systems, expanding country by country across Europe and aiming for terminal coverage comparable to card schemes.

Merchants accepting online, in-app and in-store payments in Europe, including retailers using electronic point of sale and physical POS terminals, and use cases such as parking payments.

Geography

Headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, with operations in 12 European markets as of May 2022 and staff distributed across 30 countries; expansion plans focused on covering all of Europe, with the UK targeted for later in 2022.

History

Founded in 2018, kevin. raised a $10M seed round in November 2021 and followed it six months later, in May 2022, with a $65M Series A led by Accel, bringing total funding to $77 million. Around the Series A the company launched an NFC-based A2A payments product for in-store POS terminals and set targets for European terminal coverage through 2023.

Risks & controversies

Coverage highlighted that mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay work only with cards, which could constrain adoption as NFC phone-based card transactions grow unless kevin. can offer a consumer wallet alternative. The business also depends on banks opening APIs, an area described as fragmented across Europe, and faces prospective competition from large POS and payments incumbents.