Alexandre Prot is the son of Baudouin Prot, former chairman of BNP Paribas. In 2013 he co-founded Smok.io with Steve Anavi. Three years later the two started Qonto, then called Olinda, on 4 April 2016.
The seed round of €1.6 million came in January 2017 from Alven Capital, Valar Ventures and angels. A €10 million round followed in July 2017, when the service opened to the public in France. In 2018 Qonto received a payment institution licence from the French regulator ACPR and raised €20 million.
In 2019 Qonto expanded to Spain, Germany and Italy. A €104 million round in January 2020 included Alven, Valar and Tencent. In 2022 it raised €486 million at a €4.4 billion valuation and acquired Penta.
In 2024 Qonto acquired Regate. In 2025 it applied for a banking licence and had about 600,000 customers. It earned €495.4 million in revenue and €92.8 million in net income for 2025. Qonto became the company's legal name in January 2026, and it acquired Acasi in July 2026.