In Germany, they can be found in roughly every second child’s bedroom: small, cube-shaped boxes wrapped in durable fabric that play music or audio stories. All children need to do is place a character – a ‘Tonie’ – on top of the box, and the story begins – in the truest sense of the word.

Over the past 10 years, the German company tonies has built an interactive audio experience platform for children around this little box. Founded in 2014 by two fathers looking for an intuitive, child-friendly alternative to CDs¹ – and, increasingly, smartphones – the Düsseldorf-based company has since sold 12.6 million Tonieboxes and 173 million Tonies.²

Children can now do more than listen to their favourite music. Alongside its own content, Tonies has licensed popular children’s formats such as Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig. They can also access educational content and play games. “We are building a global icon around a platform model that drives subscription-like behaviour,” says Tobias Wann, CEO of tonies, about the company’s ambition.

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, tonies says it has achieved market penetration of 58%.³ The company then set its sights on children’s bedrooms in the US for the 2020 Christmas season. In 2024, North America became tonies’ most important market by revenue.

Figure 1: Development of global revenue mix
Source: tonies

Yet there is still plenty of room to grow: according to the company, it currently reaches only 12% of its target customers in the US – households with children aged 1+ to 9+. tonies has therefore set itself another ambitious growth target: at its inaugural Capital Markets Day on 18 June 2026, the SDAX-listed company reiterated its intention to grow its North America business by 30% year on year in 2026. The German company even declared the US its “second home market”, and will shortly open a new office in Boston.

By 2030, tonies plans to more than double global revenues from €630m in 2025 to €1.4bn, while increasing its adjusted EBITDA margin from 8.6% in 2025 to 16–18% mid-term. Further international expansion is expected to help drive this growth: the company intends to enter “at least two more markets” by the end of 2027, and by 2030 the tonies ecosystem is set to be available “in all major regions of the world”.⁴

This substantial growth must, of course, be financed – ideally as efficiently, cost-effectively and with as little risk as possible. Ensuring that happens is one of Steffen Kaiser’s core responsibilities. A trained banker, he joined tonies as Group Treasurer in September 2024. His brief was clear: identify and implement an efficient capital mix suited to the business model. “As Treasurer, I have to make a significant contribution to our growth ambitions, both in existing and new markets,” Kaiser tells flow.

Like many toy manufacturers, tonies generates around 50% of its revenue in the fourth quarter. Yet the boxes and figurines must be produced much earlier, so they reach retailers in time for Christmas. This means costs arise earlier in the year, while collection periods with retailers may take several months. “The result is a seasonal cash-flow gap that we need to fund in advance,” Kaiser explains. “And because we want to grow, we have to produce even more ahead of the season. That makes a reliable financing structure essential.”

The first half of 2026 was therefore a pivotal period, culminating in the company’s inaugural Capital Markets Day. To present investors with ambitious growth targets, tonies also needed to demonstrate that it had the financial framework to support them.

Kaiser’s first move was to double the company’s syndicated loan facility from €75m to €150m. So far tonies’ only dedicated treasurer, he was joined by a colleague earlier in September. The expanded facility is provided by five banks, including Deutsche Bank and the state-owned KfW, which had already supported tonies with venture tech growth financing in 2023.

“Receivables finance is closely aligned with our cash-conversion cycle because we can draw funding when it is needed”
Steffen Kaiser, Group Treasurer, tonies

Supporting further growth in the US was another priority for Kaiser. tonies reaches customers through three channels: major retailers such as Target and Walmart, online marketplaces such as Amazon, and its own e-commerce stores.

Initially, tonies funded its local working-capital needs through a combination of its own cash, its syndicated loan facility and a US receivables finance programme established at the end of 2023. The programme allowed the company to convert outstanding invoices into cash before they became due. At the end of the collection period, the retailers then paid directly to the local factoring provider.

“Receivables finance is closely aligned with our cash-conversion cycle because we can draw funding when it is needed rather than maintain it continuously and incur unnecessary costs,” Kaiser explains. The programme also provided funding in US dollars, matching dollar-denominated customer receipts with payments to global suppliers in the same currency. “This natural hedge leaves us with very little FX risk,” he adds.

Following the agreement of its new syndicated loan, tonies decided to re-tender its receivables finance programme and bring its management under the Group Treasury department. The previous programme had been managed by the local finance team in partnership with a local provider.

“On the back of our dynamic growth ambitions, the original set-up was no longer ideal for various reasons,” the Group Treasurer recalls. “It was important to us that we could decide flexibly, and according to our needs, when to use the facility and which receivables to discount. We also wanted the option to extend the programme to additional retailers, jurisdictions and currencies.”

Asked for his main objectives, Kaiser names the following three goals:

1. Unlock liquidity by monetising a substantial portfolio of its US trade receivables portfolio.
2. Reduce credit risk of obligors and enhance balance sheet efficiency.
3. Create a scalable financing platform aligned with the company’s long-term growth strategy.

In February 2026, Kaiser launched the request for proposal and selected Deutsche Bank six weeks later. “The platform is easy to use, and the legal framework was tailored according to our operational and treasury requirements,” he says, explaining the decision to appoint Deutsche Bank.

Two-and-a-half months later, in June 2026, the new programme went live. Kaiser does not want to disclose its exact size, but says it “exceeds US$100m and provides an anchor financing tool for our US business”.

Under the new, undisclosed accounts receivables purchase scheme, tonies, at its own discretion, submits invoices and a discount request to Deutsche Bank’s Autobahn trade finance platform. The bank then provides the money to tonies on a limited recourse basis – meaning that the bank absorbs the risk if the end-customer fails to pay. At the end of the payment term, the buyers pay their invoices to tonies’ Deutsche Bank bank account, which then triggers the settlement of the funding (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: tonies’ receivables finance programme in the US
Source: Deutsche Bank

The off-balance sheet treatment is ensured by the fact that receivables are sold on a true sale basis. Deutsche Bank takes on the credit risk of the obligors, reducing monitoring and provision requirements for tonies US.

“By combining our deep understanding of the US retail market with Deutsche Bank’s receivables finance capabilities and digital infrastructure, we have created a reliable funding solution tailored to tonies’ business model”, says Dennis Damiecki, Trade Finance & International Lending Sales at Deutsche Bank. “The programme provides the flexibility to address seasonal working-capital needs today, while offering the capacity and scalability to support tonies as its US business continues to grow.”

The negotiation of the Master Receivables Purchase Agreement accounted for most of the preparatory work. “The amount of groundwork required should not be underestimated,” Kaiser says, noting the importance of close coordination with both the bank and internal stakeholders. “As Treasurer, you need to involve Legal, Tax and Accounting closely. And you need to ensure that the local finance teams understand the benefits of the new programme.”

Because ultimately, the receivables finance programme is more than a source of liquidity for tonies’ US business: it is a strategic funding platform for the company’s next phase of growth. “The programme gives us a future-ready structure that can be extended to additional jurisdictions and currencies as we pursue our ambitions in new markets,” says Kaiser. In this way, treasury is not simply financing growth but helping shape how it happens.

To find out more about Deutsche Bank’s trade finance solutions click here.

Header image: Courtesy of tonies

Sources

¹ Read more on the founders in this Deutsche Bank Wealth Management case study (in German language): Turning Points: Patric Faßbender & Marcus Stahl at wealth.db.com
² See 2026 Capital Markets Day at ir.tonies.com
³ See tonies targets to more than double group revenue by 2030 and announces further international expansion plans at first-ever Capital Markets Day - tonies at ir.tonies.com
⁴ See 2026 Capital Markets Day at ir.tonies.com