Topi sold to PEAC Solutions to take hardware subscriptions beyond DACH

A Berlin fintech whose API plugs hardware subscriptions into retailers' checkouts.

Checkout-embedded hardware rental only wins at scale when fused with an asset-finance balance sheet, so topi sold itself to get both.

Founded in 2021 in Berlin by Charlotte Pallua and Estelle Merle, topi built a fully digital subscription and rental platform that lets retailers and manufacturers offer IT hardware such as laptops and smartphones to business customers on flexible terms.

Topi's API-driven tools spread across e-commerce, telesales and physical retail in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium. In August 2025, multinational asset finance provider PEAC Solutions — operating across North America, Europe and the UK — announced it was acquiring the startup for an undisclosed sum as part of its digital transformation and Hardware-as-a-Service push.

Topi became a PEAC Solutions subsidiary, keeping its Berlin headquarters and its existing customer base, with access to PEAC's global network and capital to grow beyond the DACH and Benelux regions.

It is the documented exit of a European embedded-finance startup whose arc from launch to acquisition is short enough to read whole.

The acquirer is a traditional asset-finance incumbent, making the deal a case of fintech-regulated-finance convergence rather than a tech giant tuck-in.

The strategic logic is explicit on both sides: PEAC wanted point-of-sale digital capability; topi wanted distribution and capital.

Terms were undisclosed, but the operating arrangement (subsidiary, Berlin HQ, retained customers) is unusually concrete.

Embedded-finance startups often need a balance sheet more than another funding round — selling to an asset-finance incumbent can scale the product faster than staying independent.

As of the August 28, 2025 announcement, topi retained operational independence in the short term, serving its existing German, Austrian, Dutch and Belgian customer base from Berlin, while PEAC said it would collaborate with OEMs and channel partners to roll out the tools globally.