A London-based ‘buy now pay later’ firm has raised £57 million as it plans expansion into the US.
Zilch, a rival to Klarna, recently hit No.2 on the App Store charts behind PayPal and has almost half a million customers, with thousands signing up every day.
Over the last two years, the company has raised close to £90m. The Series B funding, backed by investors including Gauss Ventures and M&F Fund, values the firm at more than £350m.
Over 2020 Zilch has rapidly expanded its internal talent and more than quadrupled its headcount to 80, with 100 new hires planned as it grows its UK headquarters and looks to enter the US market.
Strategic hire includes Werner Kruger, ex VP of Data Science at Klarna and Monese’s ex-Chief Analytics Officer, as Chief Data Officer and more recently, Amabel Polglase, ex-Head of Global Clients at Facebook, as Chief Marketing Officer.
https://businesscloud.co.uk/draper-esprit-leads-43m-investment-into-fintechos/
“This funding is a demonstration of the confidence and strength of Zilch’s mission and products,” said CEO and founder Philip Belamant.
“By putting the customer first and building direct relationships with each of them, we are doing something no one else in the industry has done before.
“Zilch is far more than a BNPL company. We will very soon be launching in a number of new countries and continue the testing and rapid rollout of alternate ways for our customers to spend with Zilch.”
Zilch allows its customers to shop wherever Mastercard is accepted and spread their payment over six weeks for zero interest and zero fees.
It says its deployment strategy is not restricted by borders or merchant acquisition and integration.
https://businesscloud.co.uk/fintech-dominates-as-tech-nation-reveals-future-fifty-cohort/
“Our inspiration is fuelled by Gen Z and millennials, who make up a large part of our customer base,” continued Belamant.
“Their demand for convenient and transparent products drives us to keep innovating and improving our offering. We have built a digital platform that links our customer with every retailer in the world allowing us to learn what our customers want, build those features and ship them for a dime to every customer of ours in an instant – exciting times ahead.”
The funding round follows the launch of the ‘Tap and Pay-over-time‘ feature as the FinTech aims to become the largest BNPL player in-store in the UK without the need for its customers to use barcode or QR codes.
It will be the first-ever product of its kind in the UK and Europe and allow Zilch customers to add the Zilch card to their digital wallet of choice and easily tap and pay in-store and spread the costs over a six-week period.