Sam Koekoek - Klearly - Money 20/20 Europe

Why It Matters

The real‑time analytics empower small businesses to optimize staffing and boost revenue, giving Klearly a competitive edge in the crowded fintech landscape.

Key Takeaways

• Mobile app turns phones into payment terminals.
• Restaurants track employee, table, and tip data.
• Data insights improve staffing and revenue decisions.
• Product expanding beyond restaurants into other small businesses.
• Customer excitement drives cross‑industry adoption.

Pulse Analysis

The fintech sector has witnessed a surge in mobile‑first payment solutions, yet many small merchants still rely on legacy hardware that limits flexibility. Klearly’s approach flips that model by leveraging ordinary smartphones as fully functional payment terminals, eliminating the need for costly countertop devices. This hardware‑free strategy aligns with the broader industry push toward omnichannel commerce, where speed, cost efficiency, and ease of integration are paramount. By embedding the payment stack directly into a merchant’s existing device ecosystem, Klearly reduces upfront capital expenditure while maintaining PCI‑compliant security standards.

Beyond simply processing transactions, Klearly extracts granular data points—such as which employee served a table, the exact order value, and tip amounts—and presents them in an intuitive dashboard. Restaurant managers can instantly identify high‑performing staff, pinpoint under‑served tables, and adjust shift schedules based on real‑time revenue streams. These insights translate into measurable operational gains: reduced labor waste, improved customer service, and higher average ticket sizes. In an industry where margins are thin, turning every payment into a source of actionable intelligence offers a decisive competitive advantage.

Early adoption signals strong market validation, as current users are already referring peers from diverse retail verticals, from market stalls to boutique shops. This organic growth trajectory positions Klearly to capitalize on the untapped segment of micro‑merchants seeking affordable, data‑rich payment tools. Competitors focusing solely on transaction speed may overlook the strategic value of embedded analytics, giving Klearly a differentiation point. As regulators tighten data protection and merchants demand deeper insights, platforms that combine secure payments with business intelligence are likely to capture a larger share of the European fintech market.

Original Description

FF News caught up with Sam Koekoek, CEO and Co-Founder at Klearly, at the RAI in Amsterdam for Money 20/20 Europe, to learn more about his organisation.

Klearly is a payments company that offers innovative transaction solutions, allowing small businesses to enhance the ease of the payment experience by transforming mobile devices into effective payment terminals.

“We have restaurants that use our application and take the payment, but not just take the payment - they can track which employee, which table it was and any tip that was given. This helps the managers at restaurants see how much was made per table, which employees are better performing, which employees get more tips and all these data insights. We leverage the payment technology, as an enabler, to create data insights that allow merchants to make better business decisions.”

“We see that people are very excited about our products. They invite cousins that have another type of shop or sell on the market, so we are already going into different industries. That’s something that we definitely want to double down on.”