Sweden’s startup scene has long punched above its weight. From Klarna to iZettle and Sana Labs, the country has produced a stream of global disruptors that have reshaped industries far beyond Stockholm. Now, a new player is stepping onto the U.S. fintech stage—Cheque, co-founded by Julia Delin and Andreas Johansson.
Their story begins in New York, 2019. Julia was leading SSE Business Lab, the startup incubator tied to the Stockholm School of Economics. Andreas, meanwhile, was at SACC New York, guiding Swedish startups as they tried to navigate the American market.
What began as a professional collaboration quickly evolved into a partnership built on mutual respect—and, eventually, love.
“We realised quite soon that we worked really well together,” Julia recalls. “And we quickly decided we’d start a company together when we both felt ready to leave.”
By mid-2024, the duo had done just that. They resigned from their respective boards and set out to build Cheque—a platform designed to revolutionize how businesses get paid.
Between them, Julia and Andreas had coached more than 150 startups during their years at SSE Business Lab. They’d seen founders soar and stumble, and in the process, developed a deep understanding of what separates the two.
“You start to see patterns,” Andreas explains. “You learn the common pitfalls to avoid, and you see the resilience it takes to scale. That perspective gave us a huge advantage when it came time to build something ourselves.”
That insider knowledge became their greatest asset. When they finally stepped into the founder role themselves, they weren’t venturing into the unknown – they were executing a playbook they had helped hundreds of others refine.
Identifying the gap
Cheque’s concept emerged during dozens of interviews with business owners. Again and again, Julia and Andreas heard the same pain point: creative agencies were waiting months to get paid, even as payroll deadlines loomed.
“Our first ‘aha moment’ came from a marketing firm that said they consistently needed cash since they worked on a project basis,” Andreas says. “Every agency we talked to had hacked together a solution, but none had really solved the problem.”
Cheque’s model solves both sides of the equation: agencies get paid faster, while clients earn better returns on excess capital by paying early. It’s a win-win scenario that bypasses banks entirely.
“The capital already exists in the system,” Julia explains. “We’re just reallocating it in real time.”
The implications are massive: faster cash for small businesses, better yields for enterprises, and, for the first time, an ecosystem that doesn’t depend on traditional lenders.
New York: the proving ground
It’s no coincidence that Cheque is launching from New York. The city’s combination of scale, speed, and ambition makes it the perfect testing ground for a Swedish-born fintech.
“In New York, you’ll see a five-person agency working with Johnson & Johnson,” Julia says. “The U.S. market is more unified than Europe, which makes it ideal for scaling fast.”
Their recent seed round—approximately USD 670,000 led by Friends Capital and joined by investors like Tom Höglund (Epidemic Sound) and Samir El-Sabini (Juni) is fueling that expansion.
Despite building a company for the U.S. market, Julia and Andreas are proud carriers of Sweden’s design and business DNA.
“We’re a U.S. business, but our approach is very Swedish,” Andreas says. “We’re solving a massive problem and doing it with great design, simplicity, and a global mindset from day one.”
It’s a lineage that connects Cheque to the same spirit that produced Klarna, iZettle, and Tink – companies that dared to challenge financial conventions from a small Nordic base.
So, what advice do they have for Swedes crossing the Atlantic?
Andreas distills his experience into three pieces of advice for founders eyeing the U.S.:
“Enter the market either first, or after achieving product-market fit—never in-between.
Budget for the U.S. to be very expensive, then double that budget.
And get excellent lawyers – corporate, immigration, and tax. Preferably recommended by someone who’s already done it.”
It’s practical wisdom, delivered with the same precision that defines their product.
And the vision ahead?
Cheque’s long-term ambition is nothing short of audacious.
But unlike traditional banks, Cheque isn’t lending its own capital—it’s reallocating liquidity already in the system. That gives it the potential to scale faster and more efficiently than any financial institution in history.
As Julia and Andreas put it: when invoices become liquid assets and payments move instantly, the entire concept of working capital changes.
“Our vision is to build the world’s largest bank,” Julia says simply.
