Hokodo
Defunct UK fintech that offered embedded B2B trade credit insurance for online sellers.
On the record
Checkpoint: German B2B BNPL market consolidation around Billie and Mondu
The call
Hokodo raised nearly $177M against roughly $2M in revenue, then shut down in 2025-2026 as AI tools and bank in-house builds erased its reason to exist.
Hokodo was a platform that helped businesses get paid faster by offering trade credit (basically short-term loans tied to invoices). Two things killed it: first, artificial intelligence made its core job, deciding who gets credit and spotting fraud, so cheap to build in-house that customers stopped paying for the platform; second, big banks like Barclays, HSBC, and BNP Paribas, which were slow to move into this market at first, eventually built their own digital versions and took customers away. The company spent $150-177 million trying to grow but only made about $2 million in revenue in 2024, showing it never figured out how to make money faster than it was burning cash.
Why
01
AI pressure: Generalist frontier LLMs (in house AI credit tools). AI made credit decisioning, fraud checks, and collections cheap enough to build in house, killing the case for outsourcing to Hokodo. Could AI do the core job? Yes, likely.
02
Bigger players: Allianz Trade, Atradius, Barclays, HSBC, BNP Paribas, ING, Rabobank. Banks and big trade credit insurers built their own digital trade credit tools, taking away Hokodo's reason to exist. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. None left. Hokodo stopped operating in November 2025 and wound down publicly in April 2026.
What would change this call
Whether Mondu or Billie announces a major bank partnership or in-house build collapse by a bank in 2026. Would show if surviving B2B BNPL platforms face the same bank in-house threat that killed Hokodo.
Whether Liquidity Lab (Hokodo founders' new AI AR/AP venture) signs paying enterprise clients in 2026. Would confirm deeper commoditization of trade credit platforms into AI consulting services.
Whether German market consolidates around Billie and Mondu as ResearchAndMarkets projects for 2026-2028. Would show whether remaining B2B BNPL players can achieve scale Hokodo never reached.
Whether Liquidity Lab (Hokodo founders' new AI AR/AP venture) signs paying enterprise clients in 2026. Would confirm deeper commoditization of trade credit platforms into AI consulting services.
Whether German market consolidates around Billie and Mondu as ResearchAndMarkets projects for 2026-2028. Would show whether remaining B2B BNPL players can achieve scale Hokodo never reached.
Key numbers
- Raised $150-177M total funding
- FY2024 revenue estimated at $2.15M
- Financed over €500M in invoices for 100,000+ buyers
Named risks
- Company has ceased all operations as of November 2025, final wind-down confirmed April 2026.
- Core credit decisioning and collections workflows increasingly replicable in-house via AI per founders' own admission.
- Capital raised (~$150-177M) vastly exceeded traction (~$2.15M FY2024 revenue), indicating unsustainable unit economics.
- Outstanding customer debts sold to third-party collectors following shutdown, reputational risk to former customers.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Billie | gaining on | Expected to consolidate German B2B BNPL market as one of two dominant providers by 2028 (2026-04-23 report) |
| Mondu | gaining on | Named alongside Billie as expected market consolidator in Germany, partnered with JPMorgan Payments |
| Allianz Trade | losing to | Legacy trade credit insurer that Hokodo's founders left to disrupt; incumbent survived while Hokodo shut down 2025-2026 |
| Banks (Barclays, HSBC, BNP Paribas, ING, Rabobank) | gaining on | Building digital trade credit in-house per 2026-04-30 market report, cited as factor in Hokodo closure |
| Two | gaining on | Nordic/pan-European rival expanding into North America in 2025 while Hokodo wound down |
Questions people ask
- Is Hokodo still operating in 2026?
- No. Hokodo processed its final transaction in November 2025 and publicly confirmed its wind-down on April 14, 2026. The bulk of remaining staff left about two weeks before that announcement, and outstanding debts were sold to a third party for collection.
- Why did Hokodo fail?
- Hokodo raised roughly $150-177M in equity and debt against an estimated FY2024 revenue of just $2.15M (CB Insights, 2026-04-09). Founders cited a Series B that closed in June 2022 just as fintech VC funding dried up, plus AI letting enterprises rebuild credit decisioning in-house cheaply.
- Could AI replace what Hokodo did?
- Hokodo's own founders said in a July 2026 post that its core workflows, credit decisioning, fraud detection, and collections, can now be built inside an enterprise at a fraction of historical cost using AI, which they cite as a factor in the platform's demise.
- Who owned Hokodo and who were its investors?
- Hokodo was a private, VC-backed UK fintech founded in 2018 by Richard Thornton, Louis Carbonnier, and Sami Ben Hatit. Investors included Notion Capital, Korelya Capital, Mundi Ventures, Opera Tech Ventures, Anthemis, Mosaic Ventures, and Citi, across rounds from 2021 to April 2025.
- Who is Hokodo's biggest competitor now that it has shut down?
- Berlin-based Billie and Mondu are expected to consolidate the European B2B BNPL market over 2026-2028 per a ResearchAndMarkets report, while incumbents like Allianz Trade, Atradius, and banks including Barclays, HSBC, BNP Paribas, ING, and Rabobank now build similar tools in-house.
- What happened to Hokodo's founders after the shutdown?
- Hokodo's founders launched a new venture called Liquidity Lab, an AI-driven accounts receivable and accounts payable consulting firm, announced alongside the closure news on April 14, 2026, per FinTech Futures.
Timeline
- 2026-04-14Hokodo publicly confirms closure; founders launch Liquidity Lab consulting venture
- 2026-04-10Coverager reports Hokodo shut down after raising approximately $177M total
- 2025-11Hokodo processes its final transaction before ceasing trading
- 2025-04-23Hokodo secures final EUR 10M equity raise led by Korelya Capital and Opera Tech Ventures
- 2023-04-18Hokodo tops up Series B funding with strategic investment from Citi
- 2022-06-23Hokodo raises $40M Series B led by Notion Capital, valuation reaches $175M
- 2021-06Hokodo closes $12.5M Series A round
- 2018Hokodo founded in London by Richard Thornton, Louis Carbonnier, and Sami Ben Hatit
Revision history
23 July 2026
First assessed. Little protection left. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Hokodo closes down, founders launch new venture Liquidity Lab (2026-04-14)
- Hokodo shuts down after raising $177 million (2026-04-10)
- Hokodo Stock Price, Funding, Valuation (2026-04-09)
- what eight years in B2B trade credit taught us (2026-07-03)
- Hokodo Raises $39.7M in Series B Funding (2022-06-23)
- Hokodo tops up Series B funding with strategic investment from Citi (2023-04-18)
- Hokodo secures €10M equity raise (2025-04-23)
- Hokodo Careers, Perks + Culture
- Hokodo - Headcount, Funding & Open Jobs (2026-06-27)
- Articles, White Papers and More (2026-04-06)
- Hokodo shuts down after raising USD 177 mln (2026-04-14)
- Lessons from a B2B BNPL failure in the UK (2026-05-01)