Swan - Becoming a European company

European tech giants are set to thrive (thanks to our unified 🇪🇺 European payment system)

Raised on a healthy dose of European idealism, Gen Z and Gen Y find plenty to complain about today. We more often speak about the EU as a sprawling administrative organization that struggles to deliver value to citizens. But for each half-empty glass, there's a glass half-full.

If there's one area where Europe has made things right, it's in the payment space. Europeans have three successive innovations to thank for this massive feat:

• The creation of the Euro as a common currency for 19 countries. In a pre-Eurozona, moving money from one country to another was costly and time-consuming. A Dutch firm no longer needs to be an FX expert to pay its Spanish or Austrian suppliers.
• The implementation of SEPA standards. Citizens and companies can easily and securely move money from one account to the other in less than 48 hours.
• A constantly evolving European regulatory framework (namely PSD1 and PSD2) has sparked innovation and entrepreneurship. Did you know that Tink, Mangopay or N26 would not exist without these EU directives? These frameworks pushed companies to disrupt clunky old banking processes, making consumers' lives a lot easier (Neobanks, Open Banking), and online payments much more secure (SCA).

Long story short: our unified EU payment system is a reality that every European should be proud of.

Proudly European

Speaking of pride... In 2021, European startups attracted over €100 billion in funding. This points to how much our tech ecosystem has matured over the past decade: joining a European startup is now an exciting career choice and talents are increasingly attracted to working at the epicenter of ambitious tech projects.

Europeans in 2022 can be proud not by referring to past achievements, but because of ambitious tech companies being built right here and right now. Here at Swan, we believe the time has come for Europeans to build the next tech giants. Adyen, Klarna or N26 have already paved the way – and Swan is here to help power the next generation!

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In 2022, 40% of our new hires will be international folks

For a French company like Swan, the unification of the payment landscape means an unprecedented capacity to scale rapidly across Europe, from day one. We’re already well on our way: we have live partners launching and scaling their own products with embedded banking features in France, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Germany. And we’ll soon have our first live customers in Ireland and Denmark. On many levels we’re already a European company.

That said, there’s room for improvement in becoming truly European. Here are two things we’re focusing on now:

• We are localizing our continental product. Despite the homogeneity described above, there are still some local payment and regulatory specificities we have to address, country by country. Soon, we'll launch German and Spanish IBANs.
• Our team must reflect this European-ness. Today around 25% of Swanees are international. Our team must grow to reflect the diverse pool of EU tech companies we serve.

So, we've collectively set the goal that in 2022, 40% of our hires should be international, European individuals. We’d especially love to meet English, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch speakers for positions opening up across all functions of the organization: engineering, product, sales, marketing, HR, legal, and compliance.

While many of these roles are based out of our Paris HQ, we’ve recently opened office hubs in Barcelona and Berlin. If you join, you’re welcome to choose which hub to work from. ☺️

Here are some of the available positions:

- Account Executive based in Spain 🇪🇸
- Technical Account Manager based in Berlin 🇩🇪
- KYC Officer (Spanish, German or Italian speaker)
- Software Engineer (full remote in Europe) 🇪🇺‍

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If you’re excited about building a European company and want to join the adventure, please get in touch. We would love to chat!

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