Dusseldorf The new thermos bottle that was bought for dad for his birthday is a bad buy? No problem! The bottle can simply be returned with the receipt. But where is it? The notes are jammed in the wallet. The mandatory receipt introduced at the beginning of 2020 triggered a flood of receipts. But the receipt belonging to the bottle cannot be found.
Providers of digital receipts want to solve such problems. Shortly after the introduction of the receipt obligation, a whole series of start-ups planned to turn it into a business model. But only a few of them are left.
One of the survivors is Anybill. And the start-up, which is managed by co-founder Lea Frank, is now getting a real boost: Frank has found new partners and additional investors. The seed financing was increased to five million euros.
Anybill offers a digital ecosystem for issuing, receiving and processing digital receipts. The decisive difference to other solutions: the consumer does not have to download any additional apps onto their mobile phones.
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The customer scans a QR code and receives a PDF file of their digital receipt. This can then also be imported into the retailer’s app, for example. It is also possible to manage the digital receipt in a bank’s app.
Partner Diebold Nixdorf brings reach
Frank explains Anybill’s success by saying that their product is compatible with most retail systems. The technology is integrated into existing POS systems, the retailer does not have to purchase any additional hardware or software.
The start-up’s business model is based on partnerships. “Partners are extremely important for our business in every respect,” says Frank, describing the relationship. “Together we want to make digital receipts the new standard,” she explains her goal.
It is therefore a breakthrough for the young company that Anybill has now been able to win Diebold Nixdorf as a partner. The company is one of the market leaders for hardware and software in retail and can integrate Anybill’s software directly into its cash registers. This increases the range enormously and helps Anybill to acquire new customers.
Michael Schulte, Vice President Product Management Retail Software at Diebold Nixdorf, explains the decision: “Anybill convinced us both on the solution side and with entrepreneurial agility and personal commitment, for example in the interaction with the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology in order to further promote digital receipts on a European level .
He is convinced that digital receipts offer many advantages. “In addition to the reduced environmental impact and simpler receipt handling for customers, retailers benefit from significant cost savings and a new opportunity to roll out promotions and offers for stronger customer loyalty,” he emphasizes.
The increase in the second seed round to five million euros was made possible by strong investor interest. Sylvie Mutschler, Managing Director of Mutschler Ventures, is one of the new investors. It is more convincing than the purely technological solution: “The sustainability strategy and customer loyalty can be completely redefined with Anybill.”
Corona crisis slowed down marketing
Christophe Aumaître, Principal of Wenvest Capital, which is also a new investor, explains: “We were particularly impressed by the deep technical interface solution, which can be smoothly integrated into the existing infrastructure, as well as the numerous and strategic partnerships with the relevant software providers an investment.”
The idea for Anybill came about in Regensburg in 2018, in an interdisciplinary course on entrepreneurship at the Technical University of Regensburg. There, Lea Frank met Tobias Gubo, co-founder and now Chief Technology Officer of Anybill. She quickly got him excited about the idea of digitizing paper receipts.
The founder of Anybill wants offer a digital ecosystem for the issuance, receipt and further processing of digital receipts.
Gubo has been programming since he was twelve years old. Frank, on the other hand, has a business background. “And that’s how the techie and the business administration got together,” jokes Frank about the history of the origins of Anybill.
The company’s path was strongly influenced by the corona crisis. Shortly before the outbreak of the pandemic, the start-up activated its website – just in time for the start of the receipt obligation on January 1, 2020. The product was still young at the time, but the inquiries about the change in the law were already immense.
In the first two months, the start-up was in high demand. Shortly before the lockdown, Anybill was able to make initial contacts at one of the largest industry trade fairs in the world, the “Euroshop” in Düsseldorf. But with the closure of the retail trade, the number of inquiries collapsed.
More than 300 merchants use Anybill technology
The founders did not give up, but used the time. The wishes and suggestions of the potential partners, which they collected at the Euroshop, flowed into the further development. As retail businesses were allowed to reopen, demand for digital receipt solutions rose again and Anybill had an improved product to offer. Many consumers were also more willing to use digital solutions as a result of their experience of the pandemic.
>> Read here: The receipt requirement provides an innovation boost in retail
More than 300 merchants in Germany, Austria and Switzerland use Anybill technology. So far, it has tended to be small providers, but the company is now on the verge of closing deals with large chains. “Since we have invested heavily in the technical requirements with the software integration, we can activate new dealers faster and faster,” says Frank. “As a result, you will see more and more dealers in a shorter time,” promises the founder.
After initially concentrating very heavily on the technological aspects, the start-up now wants to show that the product is also suitable for a large number of retailers. Anybill is therefore expanding the number of employees in sales and marketing with the new funds. “We want to fire up the sales machine and prove that we can win new customers to the existing contacts,” says Frank about her plans.
One of the next steps should be to expand into other European countries together with the partners. The next round of financing is planned for next year. Frank is already revealing the plans: “After the next round of financing, the step after that is to proactively build up markets worldwide with our own sales team.”
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