Scaling Success: Founder of the Year on Leadership, Innovation, and Fintech's Future Lena Hackelöer is changing the payments scene with Brite Payments, a fintech making instant transactions a reality across Europe. Want to know how she's doing it? Check out the strategies and insights behind their impressive growth and what makes their approach so effective.

Winning Founder of the Year at the Hustle Awards, a London based event that recognises the leaders and teams who have challenged the norm, is a remarkable achievement, but for Lena Hackelöer, the accolade highlights more than personal success—it underscores Brite Payments' significant strides.

This recognition highlights their growth and boosts the company's mission to transform account-to-account payments across Europe. In this Q&A, Hackelöer explores the leadership that drove this success, key moments that shifted their strategy, and vital lessons on scaling in fintech.

Winning Founder of the Year at the Hustle Awards is huge! How will you use this recognition to advance Brite Payments' mission?

Although I'm delighted to be recognised with the 'Founder of the Year' award, I am even more proud of the fact that Brite Payments was the judges' choice for 'Most Successful Scaleup' – highlighting our positive growth and success in scaling up as we expand across Europe. Industry recognition like this is a real testament to the strength of our team and what we're building. I hope that it helps draw attention to our mission of making instant account-to-account payments the online payment method of choice across Europe.

What key qualities helped you win this award, and how can other founders develop these traits?

First of all, I truly believe that successful founders come in many different shapes and sizes. It's that variety that helps create a vibrant startup scene, and the incredible breadth of products that emerge across the entire tech sector. Similarly, there are many leadership styles and qualities. Personally, I think it's really important to lead in an authentic way – and that's something that is quite individual. It's something that I think many founders only figure out as their business grows. For me, it's of critical importance to communicate honestly yet respectfully. I always speak my mind – but strive to do so in a way that creates open dialogue and a supportive work culture.

There's another dimension to respect too, and that is how standards are set and maintained across the business. In some startups, you see how certain standards are enforced differently, according to someone's perceived value to the company. If you want to create a high-performing culture, there needs to be consistency, and that starts with the CEO (who is often, but not always, a founder). Again, effective leadership comes in different flavours, but I do think that respectful communication is something that everyone should strive towards.

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Can you share a pivotal moment in your journey that shaped your leadership and innovation?

As a founder, you obviously have to be very resilient, but you also have to find the right blend of stubbornness and adaptability. This is something I was faced with quite early on in Brite's journey. I founded Brite Payments in 2019 and we launched our product in the Nordics in 2020, but it wasn't long until we had competitors aggressively targeting some of our early customers, with the result being that it took longer to reach profitability than we'd expected. However, the outcome was that it forced us to step back and look closely at how we could differentiate and not compete on price – which is never a good long-term strategy in payments. We realised that it would be critical to diversify our client base and actually started to internationalise sooner than we'd planned. We quickly launched in the Netherlands, focusing next on the Baltics, then setting our sights on larger European markets, such as Germany. This rapid expansion, although costly, shaped our strategy and pushed us to think beyond the Swedish domestic market quite early in our journey.

Reflecting on Brite Payments' growth, what's one crucial lesson about scaling in fintech?

One crucial lesson about scaling in fintech is the importance of surrounding yourself with talented individuals who are passionate about the company's mission and thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. While this may seem obvious, many fast-growth fintechs face growing pains, especially as the nature of certain roles changes. In Brite's early days, I sought to leverage my connections in the fintech industry to identify and bring in the right people at the right time. I was fortunate to know a number of fantastic payment professionals who had experienced hypergrowth in other companies and understood how to navigate the complexities of scaling. Our headcount growth has been more modest than some fintechs, but that reflects an approach where I've focused on bringing in more experienced leaders, who are then able to build their teams. This has helped ensure greater stability, which is especially important if you consider the fortunes of the broader fintech sector over the past two years – specifically, the more challenging funding environment.

How do you see the payments industry evolving, and where does Brite Payments fit into that future?

Consumer expectations are changing dramatically and the payments industry is evolving to meet these expectations. In particular, there's a strong focus on speed – not just the time it takes to complete payment, but also how long it takes for a payment to be reflected on the bank account. Waiting 2-3 workdays for transactions to settle, for example, with credit card refunds, is becoming increasingly unacceptable for consumers. At Brite, we strive to be at the forefront of this shift, offering instant payments that reflect changing attitudes and preferences. For many businesses that process payments to their customers, including e-commerce refunds and insurance payouts, instant payments can significantly enhance their customer satisfaction.

Additionally, the high cost of online payments is a major challenge for many businesses. This is quickly forgotten, especially when you think about returns, i.e. when the customer orders something and then sends it back. A payment has still been made for which the retailer has to pay a fees to the payment provider or card network, even though they have made little or no sales. We are addressing this by providing a new generation of account-to-account (A2A) or 'Pay by Bank' payments that are both cost-effective for businesses and easy to use for their customers. This category of payments, which Brite has specialised in, is primed for growth due to the convergence of mobile technology (including mobile authentication of payments) and open banking, which is regulated in Europe by PSD2.

What's the biggest risk you've taken as an entrepreneur, and what was the outcome?

In retrospect it wasn't really a risk – but it certainly felt like it at the time. Back in 2021 and early 2022, as we emerged from the worst of the pandemic, capital was cheap and interest was low. Many fintechs, including some of our competitors, were raising really large rounds. However, whilst we were speaking with investors, it was clear that many were scouting the market in a bid to understand business models and gain insight into team structures, but not necessarily invest. So my focus was actually on conserving cash flow and aiming for profitability – a bid to control our own fate. However, given some of the large funding rounds that were being closed at the time, I did question whether this was the right approach and whether this more conservative approach could become a risk. Were we running fast enough? Would we "miss the boat" as competitors internationalised and captured market share before us? Market conditions did change quite dramatically during 2022 though, and the result was that our push for profitability and sound business fundamentals put us in a strong position when we did engage in dialogue with investors. The end result was a $60 million raise in late 2023, bringing in new investors Dawn Capital and Headline, and reaffirming the current value and the potential of Brite Payments.