Interview with Tristan Leteurtre, founder of Mooncard

Excel files are still the norm in many SMEs

Combining payment cards and expense management is a key component of your offering. Why link the two?

Tristan Leteurtre - In many small and medium-sized businesses, Excel files are still the norm for expense claims. Our aim is not just to optimise management, but to 'kill' it. With each card payment, the expense claim is pre-filled with MasterCard information. If the customer wishes, we can connect to the emails or diary of the traveller to enrich this information with the reason for the trip or the person met for lunch. All they have to do is take a photo of the receipt and the expense claim is made. It's magic for the user.

You're also banking on the card programme being very easy to sign up to, so that it can be widely deployed within companies.

T. L. - We create the conditions so that companies don't have to worry about being debited from their accounts. Each card is secure with its own limits per month, per week or per day, all of which can be changed very easily. You can also prohibit its use at weekends or in restaurants and ATMs. For international travel, we've recently added a great insurance package with Allianz.

Is your offer aimed exclusively at SMEs?

T. L. - We are obviously very attracted by this segment, which is not well mastered by the major players. But we were surprised to be approached by major accounts to equip some of their divisions, either because they have a lot of mobile employees, or because they are looking for a way to simplify their general purchasing. Our offer can also meet their needs for expenditure on events.

Are you in direct competition with traditional banks?

T. L. - We're not saying that banks suck. We are aware that they support their customers in many ways. We are completely open to co-brand or white-label our solution. It makes sense: we're interested in their distribution network and they have long innovation cycles. We're also launching pilot projects with two major banks.