This week NETSOL announced a multi-country go-live with Ikano Bank in what it described as a “multi-million-euro” partnership with the Nordic lender which does business in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, the UK, Poland, Germany and Austria.
NETSOL, which has its feet firmly planted on both sides of the pond, has grown its offering significantly in recent years in a crowded (and consolidating) market for providing Cloud-based IT services in Europe and the US to equipment and automobile lessors.
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NFS Ascent – which is NETSOL’s all bells and whistles offering – is typically for clients with deeper pockets than the average independent lessors.
Interestingly, Ingka Group (which runs the Swedish furniture store IKEA), is a 49% owner of Ikano Bank, which is itself a provider of IKEA Finance Services.
Currently, IKEA’s finance offering is for interest-free credit “for every type of project, from redecorating a small space to full renovation,” but a leasing offering has also been intimated in the past.
In 2019, prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, IKEA announced a test roll-out of furniture leasing in all its main markets. “After listening to customer experiences and studying their furniture usage, IKEA will look into furniture leasing as a sustainable option for their patrons.”
At the time, IKEA said it was looking to test a range of subscription-based leasing offers in all 30 of its markets by 2020 “so products are reused as often as possible before being recycled.”
These plans were, presumably, stimied by Covid and Omicron, but the announcement of a partnership between NETSOL and IKEA’s banker may suggest the Swedish furniture giant is looking to revive its pre-Covid plans to incorporate a furniture-as-a-service business model.
