MK
Matthias Knecht
Billie
Co-founder & Co-CEO
Germany
Presentation
In 2016, Christian Grobe, Aiga Senftleben and I founded Billie. 5 years later, we have become Europe’s leading provider of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) payment methods for B2B ecommerce. With innovative, digital solutions for B2B transactions, we set a new standard and create equal opportunity for all businesses to buy, sell, and thrive on their own terms. Before founding Billie, Christian Grobe and I founded Zencap in 2013, which became the leading provider of online SME loans in continental Europe with offices in Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. We successfully exited Zencap to Funding Circle in 2015, right before Funding Circle’s IPO in 2016. I started my career at McKinsey & Company where I was busy working in the banking, insurance and private equity sector. After a few years at The Firm, it became clear to me that I did not want to continue consulting from the sidelines, but put my foot down onto the playing field myself. I wanted to get into the driver seat, working on the many ideas spinning in my head. That is why I cofounded two fintechs that are disrupting the traditional ways of how we imagine banking and business transactions. Next to being knee-deep in building my own business, I am a strong supporter of the next generation of startups: as an advisor and active angel investor. I am supporting and have invested into more than three dozen European startups. Doing so, I am a firm believer that Europe in general, and Germany in specific, could do so much more to develop as a breeding ground for the next generation of founders that are turning bright ideas into groundbreaking companies. As a serial entrepreneur, I am trying to give back by sharing some of the knowledge, ideas, capital, failures, and painful learnings with inspiring and driven founders embarking on their own journey. In my spare time, I love to spend every free minute with my three kids. Besides that, I am an amateur photographer with a love of photography gadgets, a runner (you can catch me doing intervals around Berlin's southwest lakes), and a passionate snowboarder. Inside and off the slopes, I enjoy reading a lot—with at least 3 books on my bedside table at all times —and baking the perfect sourdough loaf.
Loading