South Central Ventures

📈 One of the latest additions to our portfolio, Leanpay, Slovenia’s leading Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) and point-of-sale lending platform, has posted 45% growth in revenues in 2024 and aims to even increase this growth in 2025. 🏪 Since its founding in 2017, Leanpay has been on a mission to make responsible, seamless BNPL lending accessible across all sales channels—both in-store and online. With over 120,000 users in Slovenia, Romania, and Hungary, the company has already approved more than €250 million in consumer loans. 🤝 Last year, Leanpay surpassed 100,000 active users, with 150,000 individuals becoming familiar with the platform. The company expanded its merchant network, adding 250 new partners and now collaborating with 1,000+ merchants, including over 800 actively engaged partners. Supporting merchants’ success remains a top priority, and this growing network is a testament to Leanpay’s impact. 🤖 To enhance customer experience, Leanpay introduced Lea, an AI-driven support assistant, significantly improving efficiency. With Lea’s help, the team reduced average response time from 6 hours to just 2 minutes, successfully managed 100K+ support tickets, and achieved an impressive 90% one-touch resolution rate. Slovenia remains Leanpay’s home and innovation hub. In addition to Point-of-Sale loans, the company is launching a multipurpose loan, available anytime in the My Leanpay app, to help customers cover a wider range of financial needs. In Romania, Leanpay continues to strengthen merchant partnerships, expand its management and sales teams, and broaden its offerings. Business is accelerating, and efforts to grow its merchant network and industry reach are well underway. 🔭 Looking ahead, Leanpay is actively exploring new market opportunities. While expansion is on the horizon, the next market entry is planned for 2026, with ongoing evaluations to identify the best opportunities. 💡 With innovation at its core, Leanpay is redefining consumer financing in Central and Eastern Europe—and we’re excited to support their journey! 📢 More exciting updates coming soon! #BlackPeakCapital #PortfolioGrowth #MergersAndAcquisitions #CentralAndEasternEurope #Fintech #BNPL #Growth #Innovation #Leanpay

Join us next Thursday at our first meetup of 2025, where you'll hear all about Ante Medic's experience at CES Las Vegas, but also have an opportunity for a 1:1 with investors! Grab your (free) ticket and see you next week!

At Podim, we partner with the best. And South Central Ventures is exactly that. With nearly two decades in the game, SCV has backed 𝟱𝟬+ 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 from Southeast Europe, fueling global-scale success with capital and deep expertise. With €𝟱𝗠 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲, and 4 new portfolio additions, they don’t just invest; they mentor, challenge, and push founders to scale globally. From Cognism’s rise as one of Europe’s fastest-growing startups by Sifted to Leanpay & all eyes on screens each securing €10M in Series B, SCV’s portfolio is on fire. 🔥 Meet SCV at Podim.  Pitch them.  Challenge them.  Maybe even become part of their next big success story. As they say: take their their hand. 🤝They’ll guide you. Read more about their momentum in the blog, because they sure aren’t slowing down. 😉 Blog 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dJfNw63n

📢 We are delighted to announce a new global partnership between FT Strategies and smartocto. Together, we combine strategic and sector expertise with smart analytics to deliver a unique editorial proposition for media publishers across the globe. The way we consume content is changing and media companies need to adapt to reach new audiences. This collaboration will enable publishers to evolve and innovate while keeping their audiences at the heart of their operations. We look forward to supporting more newsrooms and content creators in their transformation journey, helping them drive innovation and achieve long-term success. Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/eiBc7Rza

IT will be the “HR department of AI agents”, according to Jensen Huang. We agree… as a role for both in-house IT and third-party providers alike. IT Services providers have always been the thread that weaves new technology into the fabric of companies large and small. Last decade, that meant the (very) long road to the cloud. AI is up next. Read our latest deep-dive for some more insights here: 💰 A €200 billion industry in Europe alone, providers also influence a huge amount of customers’ IT wallet indirectly too. 🌟 Accenture’s $5 billion in GenAI bookings indicate the new projects that we expect to soon filter down to the SMB and midmarket - and they’ll need IT Services to deliver them. 📈 A new wave of tooling will unlock radically more profitable operating models. This includes preventing a deluge of tickets, automating security operations, and building custom apps like CRM or ERP integrations. We’d love to hear from builders in this space - if you are a service provider, a start-up selling to them, or even exploring them as a channel. cc: Evgenia Plotnikova, Henry Mason, Owen Brooks. Special thanks to: Mike Douglass, Ben Peters Jaime Higuera Mata, Ahmed Achchak, Björn B., Julian Lübke, Martin Pannier, Tanner Bhonslay and all the founders that helped us sharpening our thesis. cc: Cogna; deeploi; Primo; inforcer; Qevlar AI; Fleet; Workwize; Ooodles; Opnova; Boond; QA.tech; Lovable; DRUID AI; Heal.dev; Octomind; Rencore; Overe.io; JOTELULU France; Wisp compute; Cloud Capital; Dosei; molnett; CAST AI; Oneleet; Onum; Weve Technology; Tracecat; @aikocorp.ai; Aikido Security; Article here: https://lnkd.in/e8ezDD76 #AI #ITServices #Innovation #startups #MSPs #MSSPs #Accenture