Matters, a Stockholm startup building an AI-powered consumer bank, has raised $5 million in pre-seed funding as it emerges from stealth mode. Swedish angel investor Jakob Johansson led the round.
Founder and chief executive Per Österström started the company in April. He previously founded Sambla, a Nordic consumer loan broker, in 2014, and sold it to Nordic Capital in 2021.
The bank plans to charge customers a flat monthly fee for everyday banking. Customers would also get an AI adviser designed to help them spend more carefully and save more. Fees that banks normally keep, such as card charges paid by shops and currency exchange fees, would instead flow back to customers as cashback.
Österström was blunt about the business model. “Banks earn more when consumers manage their money worse,” he said. The goal, he added, is a bank that makes “financial wellbeing available to anyone.”
Lars-Åke Norling has joined the company as chair. He was chief executive of Nordnet, the Swedish savings and investment platform, from 2019 until March. “I have spent my career in regulated consumer finance, deciphering when a financial product will and won’t work,” Norling said.
Several other angel investors took part in the round. They include Knut Frängsmyr, Klarna’s former chief operating officer, and Douglas Stark, a co-founder of scooter company Voi. Johan Bladh of Röko, Patrik Tran of Validio and Per Widerström of Evoke, a former chair of Sambla, also invested.
Matters will put the money toward applying for licenses, expanding across the EU and growing its 14-person team. The company may also pursue acquisitions. It has not said which licenses it will seek or which countries it will enter first.
Once licensed, Matters will compete with established neobanks such as Revolut, which already operates across Europe. The company said its first consumer product will launch in the coming weeks.
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