Swedish mobile payments startup iZettle AB has raised $36 million in debt financing from the European Investment Bank in a new push to develop next-generation fintech solutions to complement its existing mobile payments platform.

Founded in 2010, iZettle offers small businesses portable point-of-sale solutions and free sales overview tools. Competing with the likes of PayPal Inc. and Square Inc., the company’s technology allows users to take payments with no startup costs, contracts or monthly fees.

It offers what it described back in January as “a powerful set of tools that help entrepreneurs start, run and grow their businesses.” Those tools include business management, sales analytics and customer engagement product to assist with the overall running of a business. In addition to its core mobile payments product, the company also offers a loan service for small businesses in competition to traditional banks and financial institutions.

The funding from the EIB, through its European Growth Finance Facility, which is part of its European Fund for Strategic Investments, is tied specifically to research and development of financial and commercial tools that address the needs of smaller companies. The R&D will be focused on developing the “next generation’s payments infrastructure,” the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to insights and actions, the “digitization of the commerce process” and the development of scalable legislative and compliance systems.

“We’re proud to receive this stamp of approval from the EIB,” iZettle co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jacob de Geer said in a statement. “It’s the type of offer you can’t refuse and it will allow us to further accelerate our growth and continue to level the playing field for small businesses, giving them access to tools to take on the big corporations.”

Including the new debt financing, iZettle has raised about $224 million to date. Previous investors include 83North, Creandum, Dawn Capital,  Intel Capital, Index Ventures, MasterCard, American Express, Hasso Plattner Ventures, Hermes GPE Environmental Innovation Fund, MCI Capital SA, Northzone, Santander and SEB Private Equity.

Photo: dahlstroms/Flickr