Tebi’s Bold Bet on Hospitality

Arnout Schuijff, the co-founder of Dutch payments giant Adyen, stepped away from the $61 billion company in 2021—not to retire, but to start something new. His latest venture, Tebi, is a fintech platform aimed squarely at the hospitality industry. Now, the Amsterdam-based startup has just raised €30 million from CapitalG, Google parent Alphabet’s growth fund, signaling big ambitions ahead.

Tebi: One Platform to Run Hospitality Businesses

Tebi offers an all-in-one subscription-based platform tailored for restaurants, bars, and cafes. It handles everything from payments and reservations to inventory and reporting—areas traditionally managed through a patchwork of systems.

It’s a competitive space, but Tebi is betting that integrating these services into a single, enterprise-grade platform at SMB-friendly pricing will give it a leg up.

Why Not Build It Inside Adyen?

To some, Tebi sounds like something Adyen could’ve launched. But Schuijff, who remained Adyen’s CTO even after its IPO, thought otherwise. “Building a product for small and medium-sized businesses was just better done outside the Adyen context,” he explained.

This wasn’t about filling a gap or finding a new title. Schuijff simply wanted to code again—a passion reignited during the COVID-19 lockdowns. What started as a personal project to help his favorite bar manage VAT reporting soon evolved into a full-blown startup.

From Side Project to Full-Time Startup

The turning point came when Schuijff realized that hospitality businesses would increasingly need to report sales in real time—a trend already visible outside the Netherlands. He teamed up with bar owner Mazdak Nasori, who became one of Tebi’s co-founders, and soon after, he left Adyen to pursue Tebi full time.

“The spark was coding,” Schuijff said. “But the fire was the chance to contribute something meaningful by supporting local business owners.”

Building a Dream Team

While Schuijff is now Tebi’s CEO, he admits he doesn’t get much coding time. “I miss it,” he said, “but I realized I could add more value by focusing on building the company.”

That meant assembling a balanced team. He brought in Rob Vonk, former EVP of Technology at Adyen, as CTO; Aki Tas, ex-Notion executive, as COO; and Patrick Studener, former COO at Wolt, as Chief Commercial Officer. Together, they’ve shifted focus toward commercial growth and international expansion.

Expansion Mode: From Amsterdam to Europe and Beyond

Tebi has grown from a hyperlocal service to a nationwide platform in the Netherlands, processing nine figures in annual payments. Now, it’s eyeing UK as its next market, with plans to double its 35-person team by year-end and expand to other countries soon after.

The latest €30 million investment from CapitalG, combined with a previous €20 million Series A led by Index Ventures, brings Tebi’s total funding to €56 million (about $64 million).

Why CapitalG Bet Big on Tebi

CapitalG partner Alex Nichols saw in Tebi a chance to back a platform that could do in Europe what software-embedded payments did for U.S. SMBs a decade ago: reduce reliance on banks and outdated systems.

Nichols did his homework. He’d recently invested in Belgian startup Odoo and saw parallels between Tebi and a broader shift in Europe’s fintech space. His enthusiasm—and Alphabet’s ecosystem—convinced Schuijff and team to take the deal. “They brought more than just money,” Schuijff said, citing potential synergies with Android, Google Maps, Gemini, and Google Cloud.

What’s Next: AI-Driven Hospitality

The funding won’t just fuel geographic growth. It will also boost Tebi’s AI capabilities, which already include smart onboarding features that can pull a business’s menu, brand visuals, and reservation settings automatically.

But Schuijff has a bigger vision: an AI layer that acts like a digital manager, helping hospitality owners optimize decisions and operations in real time. “It’s about more than managing tasks,” he said. “It’s about helping businesses run smarter.”

A U.S. Expansion on the Horizon

Europe will keep Tebi busy for the next few years, but the long-term roadmap includes the United States. “Once we’re confident in our position in Europe, the U.S. is a natural next step,” Schuijff shared.

From coding in lockdown to leading a high-growth startup backed by Google’s investment arm, Schuijff’s journey with Tebi is just beginning—and the hospitality world may never operate the same way again.