In this episode of The Connector Podcast, hosted by Koen Vanderhoydonk in collaboration with Belgium Fintech, Cédric Neve, founder and CEO of DigiTeal, explains the company’s SaaS API platform that bundles e‑invoicing, e‑payment and open‑banking services. DigiTeal holds a payment‑institution licence from the National Bank of Belgium (passported across the EU) and is a certified Peppol access point, enabling regulated transport of electronic invoices. The conversation covers Belgium’s mandatory B2B e‑invoicing law effective 1 January 2026, the broader EU VAT‑in‑Digital‑Age (VIDA) directive targeting EU‑wide adoption by 2030 and full interoperability by 2035. Neve outlines how structured invoice data (XML) allows automatic acknowledgments, status updates, and integrated payment links, turning the invoicing process from a “fire‑and‑forget” model into a transparent, data‑rich workflow. He discusses DigiTeal’s competitive positioning among ~300 Peppol access points, emphasizing added value through combined payment and banking APIs. The episode explores how banks can leverage invoice data for credit scoring, factoring, and targeted cross‑selling, while stressing that DigiTeal acts only as a “mailman” and does not monetize the content, relying on consent‑driven data sharing compliant with GDPR. Finally, Neve describes the target market – software developers, SaaS vendors, and banks – and provides contact information (www.digitil.eu).
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Welcome to the Connector Podcast, an ongoing conversation connecting fintechs, banks, and regulators worldwide. Join CEO and founder Koen Vanderhoydonk as you learn more about the latest available trends and solutions in the markets.
Welcome to another podcast from the Connector in collaboration with Belgium Fintech, and I've got with me Cédric, and Cédric is working at Digital Do I pronounce that right?
No, it's DigiTeal.
I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.
We're having very complicated company names, so don't bother. DigiTeal, yeah.
DigiTeal. But can you explain then what you guys do and who are you?
Yeah, glad to be here. So my name is Cédric Neve, and I am the co-founder, well, the founder and the CEO of DigiTeal. And DigiTeal is a Belgian company that is providing e-invoicing, e-payment and open banking services. And we're providing those services as a SaaS API. So yeah, you can imagine that many companies want to have integrated into their own software invoicing capabilities to be able to send and receive invoices in an electronic way. They also want to be able to collect payments, to initiate payments. That's the payment side. And then they also probably want to have access to your bank statements if you're a company or a customer to do things like credit check, to be able to check what was received on their bank account, what went out. So plenty of things that can be integrated there. And the reason we're existing is because most of those services are regulated and require a license to operate.
Mm-hmm.
So we have those licenses and we're enabling those access to those licenses through our APIs.
And which are the licenses that you have, if I may ask?
Well, we are a payment institution regulated by the National Bank of Belgium and passported throughout Europe to provide payment services and open banking services. For the invoicing part, we are a certified Peppol access point, so certified by Open Peppol to be able then to carry on those, those transport of electronic documents.
And you give us a high-level overview of what you do, and super interesting, but could you go a little bit deeper in that process of evoicing? How does that look like?
Yeah, well, in Belgium, for the 1st of January 2026, the state has put out a law that says that all businesses carrying out business with other businesses will need to be sending e-invoices as of that date, not only send, but also be able to receive. So it means that if today, as a small business owner, you're receiving an email from your provider, a telco provider with a little payment button to, to use tomorrow, this will be gone. You will be using a tool to receive this invoice.
Mm-hmm.
You will have to choose a tool for that. to get equipped. And those tools are in fact our customers.
And you mentioned Belgium. Is this also European legislation?
Exactly. So Belgium is a frontrunner in this, having it imposed for the B2B. Prior also it was done for B2G. But in Europe there is the VAT in the Digital Age Directive, so Vida in short. that aims at making this, well, visible and mandatory throughout the European Union. So by 2030, what we are having in Belgium in 2026 will be throughout Europe.
So you're ideally placed for domination in Europe.
We don't want to dominate. We want to be one of the service providers. But yes, it's perfect timing for us to provide those services. And they go out very well in combination with the other services that we already have.
But what makes you then unique? Because you say we want to be one of those services. Why are you saying this?
There are already today 300 access points that are certified to transport those invoices. And I'm sure that with the legislation that is popping up, there will be more. Competition is good, and this service of sending and receiving invoices should be a commodity. So it shouldn't really matter who, which service provider you're contracting with to get access to the service. Just like today when you access the internet, well, you have plenty of providers that give you this access and it's fine. And that's why it gets cheaper over time. So we want to be one of them and we welcome the competition. However, we believe that we have, of course, advantages compared to others.
USPs.
Yes, certainly USPs. And those USPs are linked to the other services that we're also providing through the API.
Interesting.
Yeah. So as I said, those other services are linked to payment because if you're sending out an invoice, usually it's because you want to get paid. So if you can provide extra—
Obviously.
Yeah, it seems obvious. So if you want to do this, well then great. We're going to also provide payment links, payment buttons, QR codes, whatever, to really enable the payment of those outgoing invoices. And another thing that is going to completely change the landscape for payment, at least in B2B for the coming years, is that today, to take that same Telenet invoice that you're, that you're receiving for your business, you're receiving it by email. You have this payment button, you click on the payment button, you go out to your bank and it's paid. Great. Tomorrow you're receiving this in a software. You don't see the payment button anymore. You don't see the QR code. All of this disappears because what was transferred is actually structured data in XML. And that's what your tool received as information. So now your tool needs to provide you a way to make the payment. And that is also something that we provide. Guess why?
So you sort of translate the, the computer language, if I may say, into a visual sort of experience where the client can anticipate. Is that what it is?
Nope, that's not what we do. We are the mailman for the invoicing. So we take the structured data, we validate it to make sure that it's correct. We also make sure who sent it because you don't want to have fraud on this network. And when you're receiving this Telenet invoice, you want to make sure it's sent out by Telenet and not by somebody else. So we make sure from who it's coming from, and then we provide all the additional services because that's something that is currently overlooked by many actors. Today, when Telenet is sending you the invoice, it's something like a fire and forget. They know that they sent it. They don't know if you got it. They don't know what you're doing with it. They don't know if you're going to eventually pay. And to get more information, they will be sending you reminders and kind of cues to, okay, what's going on with this invoice and why didn't you pay this already? With e-invoicing, you have plenty of extra information that you can receive through the process. So the first thing is that you have an acknowledgment of receipt. That's already great. I know that you got the invoice.
So absolutely.
I'm still in it. I'm super happy. Then I'm going to know if this invoice was accepted your service provider and transferred to you. Well, also interesting because I don't want this to be rejected and lost somewhere on the network. Okay. The third part is it's going to be received in your software and your software can transfer to Telenet again all the changes in the status of the invoice. So you're going to acknowledge the receipt of the invoice now in your software. not your access provider. You're going to accept the invoice, partially accept the invoice, reject the invoice, give a reason for the rejection of the invoice. You're going to set this invoice for payment. And all of that can be transferred back to Telenet that doesn't have to ask you what's going on. You're actually telling them. And this for Telenet is bringing a lot of value. And you can imagine that now you reverse it. It's for your own company. Imagine that you're sending out an invoice and you don't have to chase your customers because you know exactly what's going on on their side. This is really a huge advantage.
This is Valhalla for entrepreneurs.
Yeah. And it will take some time because in Belgium, the obligation is for sending and receiving invoices and credit notes. To be able to receive the extra information, This requires, well, extra work from those applications that will process the invoices. So it's going to be gradual. You won't get this from day one, but eventually it will come. And in some states, it's actually already part of what is mandatory because their VAT obligations are linked to those state changes. For example, in France, if you have an invoice that you're sending it out, The VAT obligation will be different once the invoice has been paid. And so the state wants to know if it has been paid. And if the state wants to know, they're going to make it mandatory for you to report that it has been paid. So this is all coming and it will bring a lot of improvements in the way we are digitally sending and receiving those documents.
And Cedric, I was wondering, what would be your optimistic thinking that all of this would be implemented in all Europe. What is the realistic timeline in this, in your view?
Well, as we said, the year of truth for this is 2025 for Belgium. And what is set out for Vida in Europe is 2030 with a complete adoption by 2035. So—
In a way, a long time, but also ambitious because it's a lot of process and a lot of actors involved.
Yes, in a lot of countries. And in 2035, The goal is to have this completely interoperable throughout Europe. You know that what Europe wants is a digital single market. They want to remove the borders and for you to be able to do business as easily as you want with any other company in any other EU state. So that's really the objective. And by 2035, we'll get there.
It, it sounds to me that you are pretty much of a processor and processor is done with data. Do you do anything with the data? Is it— do you do big data projects? Do you use AI in that as well? How do you use like the new technologies in the business model that you have?
Very good question. We, as I said, we're the mailman and you don't want the mailman to open your mail and to read what's inside, what is being transported. Just like you don't want your access point on the internet to read everything that you're putting out in the internet and monetizing this to do something else. So no, we are not doing this, but we are providing this mailing service, access point service to companies that obviously are monetizing this. And this is super important. a company wants to choose which service provider they're going to use, they're not going to be choosing DigiTeal because they won't know about DigiTeal. They will be selecting to do this with their bank, with their accounting software, with something that they already have. And we will be embedded behind this as the service to access the network. For a bank now, to give you a few ideas of what, what is possible with this data, The bank wants to know everything about you because they'll be able to monetize it. Now, what they know today is how much you're paying, to whom. They don't really know what for, but they have some idea with the communication. And they have also, of course, some metadata about the accounts to which you're interacting with.
Of course.
Now imagine that now they have invoices. They are seeing the invoices that you're sending. They're seeing the invoices that you're receiving. So what does this allow them to do? Well, imagine that they see that you're actually not paying your invoices and that your balance is low. Well, maybe you need a credit, and we know exactly what you'll be using it for because we saw the invoices that are not paid. Great.
That's much more anticipation in terms of credit and loans.
And that's one example. Then they see that you sent out a lot of invoices, but you're not getting paid. Well, they're going to provide you a factoring solution because they know. Now, this is all usual business for the bank. What is unusual is that imagine that you are a customer of KBC. KBC has a software called Solucio that is embedded in the KBC dashboard. And now imagine that you're consenting to receive all your invoices in this KBC dashboard, and there's a little consent link to that that says, okay, well, do you also want extra services linked to those documents that are going to be exchanged? And of course you say yes because you trust your bank. What is going to happen is that KBC is going to read your invoices and they're going to see that you have a contract with AG Insurance, and they know exactly what this contract is for because they see it completely in the invoice that has been transferred.
Yeah.
And they can maybe make a note Another product to you, right?
They'll make another offer.
Upsell, cross-sell.
Upsell, exactly. And they will say, well, we have this much better contract with better coverage for your insurance than what you have in AG Insurance, and it's less expensive. It's not much less expensive because we know how much you're paying. We know that you're already ready to pay this, so we're not going to make it as inexpensive as we could, but we're going to provide you a better deal. And this is one thing that they can do. The other thing that they'll be able to do is that maybe they have a partnership with Proximus and your Telenet contract that they saw. Well, guess what? They'll make you another offer and they'll say, you know, your Telenet deal there, well, we have better with Proximus and you can save on this. So click on this button and you're transferred. So a lot of new opportunities for banks and This is linked to big data, indeed, to AI to analyze those invoices. There's somehow still unstructured information in the lines of the invoices. There can be attached documents that can also be used by AI. So tomorrow, Oxymus can go to KBC and say, you know what? I want to know all the customers, the business customers that are receiving invoices of more than €100 per month. from Telenet. And for all of those, I want to propose this new offer. Well, this becomes possible. Wow.
It's a whole new world.
Yeah. I don't know if it's so ethical, but as a company owner, well, you'll be happy.
Yeah. And I think you mentioned the right thing. Consent.
Yeah, of course.
It's consent-driven. So that's— it should be okay from a GDPR point of view.
Yes, yes. It doesn't mean that it's ethically okay, but yes, from a legal point of view, it is okay.
It is okay. Well, time flies, and especially when you talk about such exciting futures ahead of us. Cédric, I'm wondering, why should people contact you and how should they contact you?
Yeah, so we are usually providing our service, as I said, to software developers, products that are linked to payments, invoicing, and that want to embed this into their own products. We want to be invisible, but of course, we are glad to answer any requests that people might have if they want to embed this into their products. We're also providing this to bigger companies that have their own software and that want to also embed those features into those software. And there, for example, I'm thinking about a bank. The bank doesn't have a software provider and using it kind of off-the-shelf products, but they have their own and they probably also would like to integrate part of this. So yeah, those are the, the customers that we're welcoming to, to use our service and happy to service them through very simple APIs for which we can walk them through and get ready in no time.
And how can they contact you?
They can contact us on our website, so www.digitil.eu. So DG like digital, but with an extra E before the A. So that's Digitil.
Perfect. Well, thank you very much for participating to this podcast. Thank you also to the audience, and please stay tuned. More fintech news to come.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thanks for listening to another episode of The Connector Podcast. To connect and keep up to date with all the latest, head over to www.jointheconnector.com or hit subscribe via your podcast streaming platform.
