Chift, a Brussels-based startup building bridges between business software and financial systems, closed a €10.5 million Series A round reported on September 11, 2026, led by Paris-based BlackFin Capital Partners. The deal included checks from existing backers Entourage, Shapers, Seeder Fund and Wallonie Entreprendre, according to Belgian tech publication Computable.be.
The funding arrives at a moment when European businesses face mounting pressure to modernize their financial infrastructure. Mandatory e-invoicing rules are rolling out across the continent—Belgium's requirement started in January 2026, France's in September 2026, with other countries following in later years—forcing companies to upgrade legacy systems or risk compliance headaches. Chift's pitch: a single API that connects B2B software to accounting platforms, point-of-sale terminals, e-commerce backends and payment processors without the usual tangle of custom integrations.
It's a crowded space. Competitors like London's Codat and San Francisco's Merge have attracted significant venture dollars solving similar problems. But Chift's founders believe proximity to European markets gives them an edge, particularly as countries implement distinct e-invoicing mandates with varying technical requirements.
The company now claims connections to over 120 financial systems across Europe. About 150 software companies use its infrastructure to reach roughly 50,000 small and medium-sized businesses in more than 10 countries. Chift operates from offices in Brussels, Paris and Madrid with a 35-person team.
Threading the needle
For software companies building fintech tools, accounting platforms or HR systems, integrating with dozens of third-party applications presents a persistent engineering drain. Each connection requires custom code, ongoing maintenance and troubleshooting when APIs change or break.
Chift's approach bundles those integrations behind a unified interface. A neobank wanting to sync transaction data with QuickBooks, Xero and a dozen European accounting packages can plug into Chift rather than building each connector individually. The company markets this infrastructure as purpose-built "for the AI era," though specifics remain somewhat abstract. Materials on its LinkedIn page mention an MCP server designed to let AI agents interact with financial software, suggesting ambitions beyond simple data pipes.
Named customers include Belgian project management software Teamleader, digital banking upstarts Revolut and Qonto, and Dutch payment processor Mollie, per Computable.be. French workforce management platform Skello appears in marketing materials as a user of Chift's unified point-of-sale API.
The founding team
Gauthier Henroz, Matthieu Hertoghe and Henry Hertoghe launched Chift in 2022. Henroz runs the company as CEO while Henry Hertoghe oversees technology. Before this Series A, the startup raised €2.3 million in seed funding during June of the prior year, led by Ghent-based B2B SaaS investor Entourage. That round drew participation from Shapers and Seeder Fund, plus individual backers including Hans Kluwer, a former executive at Belgian accounting software firm WinBooks, and Marc Coppens, who previously worked at Yuki and Visma.
BlackFin Capital Partners, the Series A lead, concentrates on European financial services and fintech through its Tech Venture practice. The firm typically invests between €3 million and €30 million per deal, according to its corporate site.
Growth trajectory
Chift plans to direct the fresh capital toward expansion in larger European markets, deeper investment in AI-powered integrations and automation of connector implementation.
The startup recently planted a flag in Spain, partly to address that country's Verifactu e-invoicing regulation. In a blog post published around the time of the funding announcement, the company outlined its broader European strategy. Chift has also released "The State of European Accounting Tech," a white paper mapping e-invoicing adoption timelines across Belgium, France, Norway, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.
A shifting regulatory landscape
The unified API category exists at the intersection of technical convenience and regulatory necessity. European governments are pushing businesses toward digital invoicing to reduce tax evasion and improve compliance tracking. Belgium introduced mandatory e-invoicing requirements at the start of this year, with France following months later. Norway, Germany, Spain and the UK have staggered implementation timelines stretching into the next few years, according to Chift's published materials.
Those mandates create urgency for software companies that suddenly need compliant connections to local accounting systems. Building those integrations in-house means navigating country-specific regulations, data formats and certification processes. For venture-backed startups trying to expand across borders quickly, outsourcing that complexity has obvious appeal.
Whether Chift can carve out a defensible position against better-funded rivals remains an open question. The company's European focus and multilingual team may offer advantages in markets where local knowledge matters, but the unified API space rewards scale. The more integrations a platform supports, the stickier it becomes for customers who want broad compatibility without managing multiple vendors.
For now, Chift's backers seem willing to bet that fragmentation in European accounting software creates room for a regional specialist. The Series A gives the company runway to test that thesis across a continent where regulatory change is accelerating faster than many businesses can adapt.
