Bulgarian Fintech Paypercut Secures €5M to Build the Payments Infrastructure CEE Has Been Missing

Beyond the co-leads, the round attracted a geographically diverse set of backers. These include regional heavyweights like BrightCap Ventures and MFG Invest from Bulgaria, Poland's SMOK Ventures, and UK-based Portfolio Ventures, alongside BlackWood, SABAH.fund, Main Set, and payments entrepreneur Matt Doka .

This €5 million injection builds on a €2 million pre-seed round raised in July 2025, which was itself one of the largest pre-seed rounds for a payments-focused company in the CEE region at the time .

From BNPL Aggregator to Full-Stack Payments Platform

The company's product evolution over the past year is a central part of this funding story. At its pre-seed stage, Paypercut was primarily a multi-provider Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) aggregator, designed to simplify the onboarding of various BNPL options for small businesses across the region .

Since then, the company has transformed into a complete payments platform . Merchants now gain access through a single integration to a comprehensive suite that includes card acceptance, a wide range of local payment methods, and multiple BNPL providers at checkout. The platform also provides flexible tools like payment links and QR codes for businesses operating without a full website, and a single dashboard to manage billing, multi-currency payouts, and settlements across different markets .

Current Traction and the New Express Checkout

Paypercut now serves more than 200 merchants and is operational in eight markets across Central and Eastern Europe . While the company has not publicly disclosed the full list, its launch roadmap from 2025 included Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Czech Republic, Poland, and Turkey .

This quarter, the company is unveiling its next major product: Express Checkout. This feature shifts the payment moment directly to the product page, before a customer reaches the shopping basket. It enables one-tap payments through Apple Pay and Google Pay, relying on biometric authentication to eliminate the friction of manual card entry on mobile devices. The goal is not only a faster checkout experience but also a meaningful reduction in chargeback rates, a persistent pain point for mobile commerce .

Strategic Use of Funds: Growth and Regulatory Ambitions

The new capital is earmarked for three strategic pillars. First, it will fuel Paypercut's geographic expansion across CEE and allow it to deepen its presence in existing markets . Second, the company will invest in next-phase product and infrastructure development .

Crucially, a significant portion of the funding will meet the capital requirements needed to apply for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence with the Central Bank of Ireland . Securing an EMI licence would be a transformative step for Paypercut, allowing it to issue electronic money and offer a broader range of regulated financial services directly, rather than relying on third-party infrastructure. The company expects authorisation to be granted in Q4 2026 .

With a strengthened product, growing merchant base, and a clear regulatory pathway, Paypercut is positioning itself as a critical piece of the financial infrastructure enabling online commerce in one of Europe's fastest-growing digital economies.