Qonto and Pennylane: French fintech friends and foes

Qonto and Pennylane are two of France’s most well-known fintech disruptors.

The Paris-based fintechs set out to disrupt particular areas of finance: Qonto – SME banking; and Pennylane – accounting software for SMEs.

Qonto, founded in 2016, four years before Pennylane, is the bigger name in France, yet Pennylane is fast-rising.

Backed by the likes of Sequoia and Tiger Global, both have hoovered up hundreds of thousands of customers.