Business banking in Germany has historically meant dealing with the same institutions that serve retail customers — with roughly the same digital experience and roughly the same level of enthusiasm for small business needs. Penta was founded in Berlin in 2016 to offer something different: a business account built specifically for startups, freelancers, and SMEs, with an application process that takes minutes rather than weeks and features designed around how small businesses actually manage money. Its platform includes multi-user access, sub-accounts for expense management, integration with accounting software, and a Mastercard — the building blocks of a business banking stack that incumbents had been slow to assemble digitally. Penta merged with Qonto, the French business banking platform, in 2022 — a consolidation that created one of the largest SME banking platforms in Europe, with a combined user base across multiple markets and the product depth that neither company would have built as quickly independently. The merger reflected the economics of SME banking: scale matters, and building the full stack of products that businesses need requires either deep pockets or strategic combinations.