Hokodo Shuts Down After Eight Years, Founders Launch New Venture Liquidity Labs
Hokodo, once one of Europe’s most prominent B2B Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) fintechs, has officially ceased operations after eight years in the market. The company confirmed the shutdown in a LinkedIn announcement, marking the end of a venture that helped define the emerging category of real‑time trade credit for business buyers.
A Pioneer in B2B BNPL
Founded in 2018 by Louis Carbonnier, Richard Thornton, and Sami Ben Hatit, Hokodo set out to modernise the outdated infrastructure behind B2B trade credit. At the time, around 60% of global B2B commerce relied on payment terms, yet most SMEs lacked access to credit insurance, automated credit checks, or digital financing tools. Hokodo aimed to solve this by bundling real‑time credit decisioning, fraud detection, financing, collections, and insurance into a single API, effectively bringing consumer‑style BNPL to the business world.
Over its lifetime, Hokodo:
- Financed more than €500 million in invoices
- Served over 100,000 business buyers across 10 countries
- Raised over €150 million in equity and debt
- Secured major partnerships with BNP Paribas, SCOR, AIG, Citi, Munich Re, and others
- Became the first B2B BNPL provider in Europe to hold a full EU payments licence
The company’s technology-powered payment terms for marketplaces and merchants, including Ankorstore, which credited Hokodo with helping it acquire more than 200,000 business customers.
Why Hokodo Shut Down
Despite its achievements, Hokodo acknowledged several strategic missteps that ultimately led to its closure:
- Scaling too quickly before achieving product‑market fit
- Taking too long to narrow focus in a complex, fragmented B2B ecosystem
- Building too much product complexity too early
The founders said the company processed its final transaction in late 2025, and most remaining employees departed shortly afterwards. Hokodo’s website now confirms that all outstanding debts have been sold to third‑party collectors.
From Fintech Startup to Advisory Firm: Liquidity Labs
Rather than pivoting the company, the founders have launched a new venture: Liquidity Labs, a specialist consulting firm focused on helping B2B companies transform their trade credit and cash‑flow operations using AI.
Co‑founder Louis Carbonnier emphasised that this new firm is not a fallback but a natural evolution of what the team learned:
“Liquidity Lab is not a pivot or a consolation prize. It’s the logical conclusion of everything we learned about where the opportunity in B2B trade credit actually lies.”
