How Qeld came into the world

The small business owner's story

Once upon a time, there was an enthusiastic young entrepreneur. He dreamed of starting a company. It was completely new, unfamiliar and exciting territory. For starters, he should at least have a bank account where he could deposit his hard-earned capital. The entrepreneur proudly went to the nearest bank to announce that he would open an account for his business and that he wanted to deposit €10,000 into it right away.

The entrepreneur in the branch was talking about his business plans with great enthusiasm, but the loyal banker suddenly asked why he had chosen to visit his bank. The entrepreneur found this a bit of a strange question, especially since the bank was named “commercial bank of the year” in Sweden the year before, but hey, the entrepreneur replied that he thought the bank could provide a good service for his company. After a 15-minute conversation, the entrepreneur was informed that the bank did not consider that his idea had been developed well enough and that he could not be approved as a customer. That message felt like a bucket of iced water being thrown over him. How could that be possible!? He didn't even want to borrow €10,000 but just deposit it in the bank. Maybe he wasn't an entrepreneur at all. Perhaps the bank employee was right... Fortunately, he didn't give up and found another bank. Who understood much more about it.

This young man was me. Since then, I've learned that I was definitely not the only one who ever felt belittled by a bank. This makes me furious as eight out of ten jobs are created by small companies and that the prosperity of society depends on this job creation.

We promote the creation and growth of new companies. Today - 15 years later - I have become what is also called a “serial entrepreneur” in English. I love constantly starting up new companies and kicking outdated structures to the bone. First, the Scandinavian telecom monopoly was challenged, later Sweden's gambling monopoly disappeared and now it's time to fight against the banks' oligopoly.

After many years of working, I have made contacts with good and talented bankers, but there are hardly any open arms available at the bank branches for small new companies - and we are certainly not talking about the need for more capital. In principle, business loans can be forgotten if the company does not have many years of history and has at least one ton of turnover. If you were not in the same year club as the director, a lot of documentation is needed, such as a business plan, budgets and financial statements. Many of these companies are therefore forced to come to friends and family for growth financing. While banks are incredibly profitable and interest rates are historically low, the number of corporate loans has only fallen. Great! My thought was that this was a fantastic opportunity for a new company. At Qeld, we help smaller companies grow and treat them with the respect and good service they deserve. A business loan simply shouldn't be more difficult than ordering a book online. If someone has a good idea, they should be able to get a response to their loan application within a few minutes. Now we hope that we can help more and more small businesses and, perhaps, create a little more humility among the banks.

Emil Sunvisson, CEO and Co-Founder‍

Qeld (Qred Bank AB)

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