Monika Liikamaa likes to swear.
She鈥檚 the co-founder and co-CEO at Enfuce, the leading European card issuer processor.
As we sat down for our interview at Lisbon鈥檚 Web Summit the first clue about her love of swearing was the 鈥楪et shit done鈥� message on her T-shirt.
Liikamaa is a seriously talented and likeable entrepreneur.
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Her aim is to build Europe鈥檚 number one issuer processor in Europe by 2035, with a bold goal of hitting 鈧�10bn in ARR.
An issuer processor is a company or technology platform that connects banks (the issuers) to the payment networks like Visa or Mastercard.
Enfuce was founded in Finland in 聽2016 and its ARR is currently 鈧�30m and growing at a rate of 60 per cent.
The company鈥檚 last investment round was in 2022 and brought the total funds raised to date to 鈧�73.5m.
鈥淚’m going into the next phase now and, of course, I’m seeking a unicorn valuation,鈥� she said.
Liikamaa has strong views on pretty much everything and she isn鈥檛 shy about sharing them.
From the lack of VC funding going to female founders to why her own children can鈥檛 expect to inherit any future fortune, no topic is off limits.
‘I’m too old to give a sh*t’
鈥淚’m too old to actually give a sh*t as long but I don’t want to be an asshole,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 do think it’s important to be authentic, but I’m not trying to play a game.鈥�
I鈥檝e been a journalist for 35 years and I have never interviewed someone more direct than Monika Liikamaa 鈥� and I鈥檝e interviewed c.5,000 entrepreneurs!
Around 30 of Enfuce鈥檚 total staff of 156 are based in London and the company has bold growth plans for the UK.
Explaining the idea behind the business Liikamaa said: 鈥淚 was a banker with shitty processors which meant that to launch new payment products to my customers, Apple Pay, Google Pay was f**king horrible, expensive and took sh*tloads of time.
鈥淚 was like, 鈥榟ey guys, this isn’t rocket science, I can do it better鈥�. I decided to build a company that does that better, faster and globally scalable.
鈥淏ecause we chose to be globally scalable, we actually became cloud native.鈥�
English is her third language behind Finnish and Swedish 鈥� and although she can swear in all three she prefers Finnish.
Finnish is best language to swear in
鈥淭he best language to swear in is Finnish,鈥� she explained. 鈥淓ven a non-Finn would understand when a Finn swears.
鈥淔inns, by default, we don’t talk a lot, so what we say, we try to make it useful, and that’s why we have a very low threshold of tolerance for fluff, fluff.
鈥淭here’s also this study that intelligent people curse a lot.鈥�
Monika Liikamaa, co-CEO of Finnish FinTech Enfuce
Liikamaa was born in Sweden to Finnish parents and has dual citizenship.
鈥淵ou know my father, he was a taxi driver and had his own business. When I was younger, I used to, during my studies, work as a taxi driver and then a jail guard in a male prison.
鈥淚 was 19 and prisoners could be in for murder or drunken driving, so anything and everything.
鈥淭hanks for the Finns we have, you know, the border under control. And that’s when I thought like, 鈥榦h sh*t, I need to do something else鈥�.
鈥淭hat’s when I started my tech studies. I’m a system architect, a developer by trade. 聽In the last millennium, I was a developer.鈥�
She moved to the south of Finland and became a developer in the telco industry.
鈥淭hen I saw the dotcom boom and the crash,鈥� she recalled. 鈥淭hen I became a first-time founder in 2006. It was a consultancy for tech.
鈥淚 was very direct, and I have this thing called 鈥榞etting sh*t done鈥�.鈥�
It鈥檚 at this point that she pulls apart her denim shirt to reveal the words on her T-shirt.
She co-founded Enfuce in 2016 with her fellow co-CEO Denise Johansson.
鈥淲e haven’t grown revenue wise as much as maybe our competitors, but we have this thing called 鈥榥ot stinking鈥�,鈥� explained Liikamaa.
鈥淲e’ve been very, let’s say, selective with customers, which means that now we’re finally getting up to a 60 per cent year-on-year growth path.
鈥淚t wouldn’t work with players who do porn, adult entertainment, or sh*t like that.鈥�
UK customers include respected names like London Mutual, Funding Circle and allpay.
Kids need tough love
Liikamaa is a no-nonsense mother-of-four and said young people need a dose of tough love.
鈥淚 don’t know whose quote it is but 鈥榞ood times make weak people, weak people create hard times, hard times create strong people鈥�,鈥� she said.
鈥淚’m thinking that we’re hopefully now in the hard times, and we’re going to start creating strong people.
鈥淏ut I feel that a part of the younger generation, let’s say 35 and younger, they are a bit lost, because they have been part of the good times.
鈥淲hen good times come, it is human (nature) to want the best for your kids, which means that you do sh*t on behalf of them, and only through pain and suffering comes through growth and courage.
‘We f*cked it up’
鈥淲e kind of f*cked it up, and then we added on social media, TikTok.
鈥淚f you look at China, I don’t think the Chinese government even allows TiktTok to f*ck up the brains of the Chinese youth but here we are.
鈥淲e have outsourced parenthood and when I say parenthood, I don’t mean biological parenting as such, but safe grown-ups who will inflict certain amount of, let’s say, structured pain, meaning you need to work, you need to put in an effort.
鈥淲hen you don’t require that and you don’t support it, people very easily go into this self-pity martyr narrative, and that really kills innovation and progress. I think that’s sad.鈥�
The outspoken entrepreneur has four children鈥� two boys and two girls 鈥� aged between 16-25.
鈥淭he two younger ones still live at home, but they know what it means to work,鈥� she said.
鈥淲e put them to work, even though they don’t want to when they are young, and also they have had to choose a sport.
鈥淚 believe a lot in sports, especially when you’re young, because it teaches you to win and lose, and it teaches you to do an effort.
鈥淟ife isn’t about being motivated or being passionate to succeed, it’s about discipline. You get your sh*t done, even though when you don’t want to, because you have to, because giving up isn’t an option.鈥�
As a significant shareholder in the business I asked her if she was multi-millionaire.
鈥淢aybe one day,鈥� she said before admitting her children can鈥檛 assume they鈥檒l inherit any future fortune.
鈥淓veryone needs to make their own money,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e live in Finland. It’s a very secure and safe place. We pay sh*tloads of taxes to make it so.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pure with good schools and everything. I think the problem is that they don’t even understand how good it is.
鈥淭hat’s why I think it’s always good to send them out and look at the world and see other stuff to get perspective.
Fruity language: Monika Liikamaa, co-CEO of Enfuce, doesn’t like ‘fluff’
鈥淥ne day when I maybe, hopefully get the bucket of money, that money will be reinvested into tens of future Enfuces.鈥�
Another subject Liikamaa is passionate about is the lack of investment in female founders, comparing the problem to the feeling someone gets when they drive a new car and sees an identical make and model.
鈥淚 think that’s one of the key problems with female founders and the VC finding each other,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he VCs don’t know how to look and what to look for.
鈥淚 think also us women, and now maybe not me included in that thing, but we have this thing called fear.
鈥淲e are afraid of a lot of things. I think one is biology. Probably, you know, God created man and said: 鈥業 can do better鈥�.
鈥淲ith that we鈥檝e got this gift of being concerned about stuff. What that means is that we don’t pitch.
鈥淚 think there’s a lot more female-founded companies that actually are solving real problems but for whatever reason, the females don’t have the courage to go and pitch for money.
鈥淭he fun fact is this, no one will come home to you and say, 鈥榟ey, b*tch, I looked at your shit, I’m gonna fund it鈥�. Happened never, unless you have already had a success track, and then some weirdo will come and put money into whatever you’re doing just because you’re doing it.
鈥淭hat’s why I work a lot with young founders, female founders, to instil them with the courage that the worst thing that can happen is you get a no, and nobody died of a no.
鈥淚 think that in combination of VCs starting to open their eyes and actually actively looking for companies.鈥�
30 per cent of the startup ecosystem in Finland are run by females, and 32 per cent are scaleups.
鈥淔emale-founded startups and scaleups succeed better on average than male,鈥� she said.
鈥淏ut I think that’s one of the problems. It’s a combination problem. You can’t invest in something that you don’t find or see, and in order to get funded, you need to not be afraid of failing.鈥�
- Chris Maguire is the executive editor of 老九品茶Cloud. He can be emailed at Chris.Maguire@老九品茶Cloud.co.uk