ReceiptHero

ReceiptHero, a Finnish fintech company founded in late 2018, is positioned to disrupt the traditional receipt ecosystem by providing a fully digital, end-to-end platform. The company was established in Tampere, Finland, by Joel Ojala, Saku Pihlajaniemi, Tommi Keränen, Tuomas Peippo, and Toni Leppänen. The founding team leveraged its prior experience from eTasku, a successful expense management software company, to address the persistent issue of paper receipts in an increasingly digital payment world. Joel Ojala, who served as CEO for the first five years, brought over a decade of experience in fintech and SaaS to the venture. Saku Pihlajaniemi currently leads the company as CEO.

The core of ReceiptHero's business is an open ecosystem that connects merchants, banks, and consumers to seamlessly transmit itemized digital receipts. The platform integrates with merchant's existing point-of-sale (POS) systems and payment service providers, capturing transaction data at the point of purchase. For consumers, the service works through card linking, where they can register their payment cards to automatically receive digital receipts in their connected banking or accounting applications. This eliminates the need for paper slips and provides an enriched, item-level view of their spending. The business model operates on a B2B and B2G (business-to-government) framework, with revenue sharing agreements with partners who help onboard merchants. Clients range from large retailers and gas station chains like Neste and R-kioski to restaurants and brands such as Taco Bell and Pentik.

ReceiptHero's platform is built to be a neutral conduit, ensuring merchants retain control over their data, which is not sold to third parties. The company is PCI DSS compliant, allowing it to securely handle payment data to match receipts with transactions. Beyond convenience and sustainability by reducing paper waste, the service offers merchants valuable, GDPR-compliant data analytics on customer buying behavior. Merchants can also enhance customer loyalty by embedding customized branding, feedback requests, and vouchers directly into the digital receipts. The company has forged significant partnerships with major players in the payments industry, including Visa, Mastercard, Verifone, and Worldline, to accelerate the adoption of digital receipts across Europe. Following a seed round of €2 million in 2020 and subsequent funding in 2024, ReceiptHero is expanding its operations across Europe and the UK, with plans for pilot programs in the US.

Keywords: digital receipts, fintech, open banking, point-of-sale integration, transaction data, expense management automation, sustainable retail, customer loyalty platform, data analytics, eKuitti, payment ecosystem, card-linked offers, merchant services, banking apps, real-time economy, POS software, retail technology, customer engagement, paperless solutions, Joel Ojala, Saku Pihlajaniemi