SIH Invests in Fintech Company Veslo. Backing a platform that digitalises the distribution and use of payment services.
Bratislava, July 20, 2026 – Slovak Investment Holding (SIH) is investing in the Slovak technology company Veslo, which unifies payment infrastructure and builds a digital layer on top of it, enabling payment and fintech services to reach merchants from service providers through a single platform.
The total investment round amounts to EUR 2 million, with SIH investing EUR 1.4 million and a private investor contributing EUR 0.6 million.
Veslo plans to use the newly raised capital primarily to further develop its platform, expand its ecosystem with new partners, and accelerate its expansion into international markets.
Veslo is building an open digital ecosystem for payments and commerce targeting the small and medium-sized business (SMB) segment. The platform connects payment service providers, sales organisations, software developers serving merchants, and merchants themselves within a single integrated ecosystem.
The platform digitalises collaboration across the entire value chain—from distribution and onboarding to the integration of services provided by all participants—allowing merchants to select and activate the services they need online directly through the platform. As additional third-party providers join the ecosystem, the range of available services continues to grow.
Since April 2026, Veslo has been operating its production platform in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The company has already launched several products for the SMB sector and secured its first paying customers.
"At SIH, we look for companies that solve real-world problems through technology and have the potential to succeed internationally. The distribution of payment services to merchants remains a highly fragmented and inefficient market, and Veslo's platform-based approach has the potential to simplify and digitalise it. We are pleased to support a Slovak team with the ambition to build a scalable technology solution with a European reach," said Juraj Jusko, Director of Direct Investments at Slovak Investment Holding.
SIH's investment was made in the form of a convertible loan financed through the Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Slovak Republic (Component 9), which aims to support innovation, research, development, and technological advancement of Slovak businesses.
Even at this early stage, Veslo is already collaborating with leading payment industry players and is carrying out pilot deployments with banking partners.
"We see SIH's investment as a strong validation that the direction we have chosen makes sense, and it will significantly accelerate our progress. We have spent more than fifteen years in the payments and commerce industry, watching every participant in the value chain—from payment providers to service organisations—build and manage their own distribution and support networks independently. As a result, merchants are forced to coordinate multiple vendors, contracts, and systems without having a single point of access to everything they need. Veslo was created from a simple idea: to move beyond the merchant's counter and into their phone. Our goal is to ensure that everything a business needs is available in one place under a single agreement," said Adrián Švec, Co-founder of Veslo.
About Veslo
Veslo is a Slovak technology company founded by Adrián Švec and Marián Lapoš, entrepreneurs with more than fifteen years of experience in payments, sales organisations, and merchant solutions. Through the Veslo platform, merchants can purchase and activate cash register systems, payment terminals, software applications, and third-party tools. The platform also enables these solutions to be distributed, managed, and connected through seamless data exchange. Veslo operates in Slovakia and the Czech Republic with its own sales, development, and customer support teams.
For more information, visit www.veslo.io.
About Slovak Investment Holding
Slovak Investment Holding (SIH) is a joint-stock company wholly owned by the Slovak Republic. Its primary mission is to support strategic public and private investments in Slovakia, focusing on the competitiveness and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, infrastructure, energy efficiency, waste management, the social economy, and the cultural and creative industries. SIH finances its investments primarily through European Union funds and provides support mainly in the form of repayable financial instruments rather than grants.
For more information and examples of supported projects, visit www.sih.sk.
