How Payment Platform Dealflow Increased Transactions By 10,000% And What's Next With AI

Forbes

11-04-2025

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Seb Haugeto
In 2019, Seb Haugeto dropped out of college. The now 27-year-old was paid nearly $20,000 to travel across Europe to produce a web series called Hostels Around The World about his backpacking escapades. Haugeto, who later made the 30 Under 30 list in 2024 for his work as the founder and CEO of financial company Dealflow, worked with countless hostels and booking sites during his time abroad. He soon realized a primary pain point for content creators was getting paid easily, and on time.
'I had a lot of issues with invoicing payments and just finance in general,' he said. 'So the Dealflow mission is very personal to me, which is to democratize financial expertise for business owners everywhere.'
He officially launched Dealflow in 2022 as a SaaS company that helped content creators run their businesses. But last year, he pivoted to focus on payment and invoicing services for small businesses specifically. Since launching that version last summer, transaction volumes have grown from €5,000 to over €500,000 a month—that's almost a 10,000% increase. The €500,000 comes from around 100 active monthly users, he said. But Dealflow isn't stopping there. That's why he raised an additional $100,000 (on top of more than $1.5 million previously raised through angels and a pre-seed round) to continue building.
Led by investors from Klarna, PayPal Ventures and SumUp, this round will mostly go toward engineering salaries. But another priority for the platform is to increase capacity on the site.
After all, the demand is obvious: 'There are more than 500 freelancers and companies on the waitlist right now,' Haugeto said. Potential customers range from companies with revenues in the several millions per month to freelancers with a few thousand per month. All in all, though, the current waitlist would amount to €10 million in processed payments monthly if onboarded today, Haugeto said. But he's conscious about growing too fast.
'It's important for us to have a filter and be conscious about what kind of companies we serve and where we serve them… and to have a very controlled onboarding process,' Haugeto said. 'We only onboard companies when we feel like we have capacity to take on more volume, and that's a slightly different strategy than I know a lot of companies take.'
To increase their ability to help more SMBs, Dealflow is investing in AI—for both internal and external use. For instance, they're building an internal bot that will make the Dealflow team's tasks like onboarding and compliance more efficient. And AI will soon be used to make the user experience better, too. With the implementation of AI agents, Haugeto hopes to automate payments reporting and accounting for clients.
'AI is part of our long-term vision,' he said. 'We're building the foundation for that today.'
See you next week,
Alex and Zoya
Courtesy of Much
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We're bringing you the scoop on a new Under 30 community member. Up this week: 2025 Under 30 Music lister Zoe Wrenn, founder of Tamber. A self-taught coder, Wrenn created an AI-driven software that helped her make a song called 'Hailey' in 2020, which hit No. 2 on Billboard's Digital Chart and earned 30 million streams. Her software, now called Tamber, helps artists with melodies, lyrics, and self-production. The startup has raised $3 million in funding from investors like M13 and Rackhouse VC.
The following has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
You're a self-taught coder. When did your interest in technology begin? Around 13 years old. I saw a website, thought 'I wanna build that,' ended up on IRC
(Internet Relay Chat) the same night, talking to other coders around the world until like 3:00 a.m. I pretty much decided that night that music & tech were the two universal languages, and I needed to be fluent in both.
How did you get the idea for Tamber? During early covid, I built the first version of Tamber which was basically an 'ai co‑writer' to break writer's block. It helped me finish a track in 10 minutes. The TikTok demo hit 15 million views on the first day, and that's when I realized the real gap: Tools that speed us up without stealing the steering wheel. Tamber's grown a ton since, but the mission hasn't changed—super‑charge musicians, never replace them.
What's been the most rewarding part of becoming an entrepreneur, and what's the most challenging? Rewarding: The people. I'm surrounded by brilliant, generous minds who make me level up daily.
Challenging: Doing it solo. There were 74‑hour coding marathons with less than $10 in my account and zero safety net. Brutal, but I'd do it again every time.
There's a lot of debate around the use of AI in music. What do you say to the adversaries? I agree with them. I think most of the AI music tools that have launched aim to replace musicians with synthetic audio, despite them arguing they aren't. I think it's horrible.
There are a lot of aspects of the process that could be expedited and taken off the artist's shoulders while still leaving them in control. Why attempt to replace the very thing people commit their lives to? It makes no sense to me.
How big of a role do you imagine tech will play in the music industry over the next decade? I think it really depends on the artist. You can't force tech into a creative space; people guard what they make. Remove every bit of friction and you risk stripping out the soul. Art is a living, breathing thing. I think when AI begins to move in the same way without taking away too much control, we'll see more integration.
What's one piece of advice you have for other young entrepreneurs? If you wouldn't burn your comfort zone for the mission, pick a different mission.
Tell us about a day in the life! What are you listening to? Lately I'm deep into Sudanese Arabic music. Tamber recommended it and nailed the vibe. On repeat: Hleem Taj Alser, Gigi Perez, Rüfüs du Sol, Porter Robinson, Baaba Maal, plus any bardcore fantasy playlist.
Any favorite musicians? What about favorite CEOs? Keaton Henson, Anais Mitchell, Pixies, Death Cab, Baaba Maal.
What's a hot take you have? Removing all friction from creativity is a mistake. A little discomfort can fuel great art. AI should be the sparring partner, not the autopilot.
What's one thing the Under 30 community doesn't know about you? I'm really into Dungeons and Dragons. It's not even funny. It took five days to make my first character. TikTok wont stop showing me 'dragon decor' ads.