Industry Financial Services Founded 2011 Type of business Private | Website kantox.com Headquarters London | |
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Key people Philippe Gelis (co-founder/CEO), Antonio Rami(co-founder) Products Foreign currency exchange | ||
Kantox is a UK-based "FinTech" company that offers foreign currency exchange and international payment solutions for corporate clients. The company was born out of the idea of disintermediating banks from the foreign exchange process, thereby driving down costs and administration time for companies.
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Kantox has its headquarters in the City of London and offices in Torres Maphre Barcelona, Spain, and currently works with more than 35 currencies and operates in more than 50 countries worldwide.
Kantox is a founding member of both France Fintech and the Spanish Association for Financial Technology (Asociación Española de Technología Financiera) which lobby for a greater role of FinTech in their respective countries' financial sectors.
History
Kantox was founded in 2011 by Philippe Gelis and Antonio Rami, ex-consultants in Deloitte, who realised the business need for an alternative high-tech solution for their foreign exchange operations.
The name of the company takes inspiration from the surname of Georg Cantor, the creator of the theory of transfinite numbers, a fundamental theory in the transformation of mathematical study in the late nineteenth century. Operating in the FX market, where daily turnover has been estimated by the Bank for International Settlements at $5.3 trillion, Kantox’s founders wanted a company name that reflected the almost infinite-like nature of the market. This led them to use Georg Cantor’s surname, adding an X to represent FX.
In 2014, Kantox raised €6.4 million in investment and one year later, announced reaching $1 billion in total corporate foreign exchange transactions. Eight months later, the company reached $2 billion in currency exchange transactions, from more than 2,000 clients.
Awards and recognition
In 2014, Kantox was awarded with Deloitte's Award for Innovation, named ESADE Alumni-Banco Sabadell Start-up of the Year 2014 Award and received FICOD's - International Forum for Digital Content - prize for digital entrepreneurship. In 2015, Kantox was named European FinTech of the Year at the European ICT Spring Awards. The company has also received media coverage from international finance publications including Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes.
Regulation
As a UK company, Kantox is authorised in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority as an Payments Institution under the Payment Services Regulations 2009. Furthermore, Kantox is also registered with the UK HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as a Money Services Business, with the registration number 12641987.
Investors
Kantox has received financing through various rounds of investment. Investors include venture capital firms Partech Ventures, IDinvest Partners and Cabiedes Partners, in addition to private financiers and web entrepreneurs. Most recently, in May 2015, Kantox raised $11 million from its existing investors.