The London-based fintech startup Zilch today announced it has raised a further €93.44 million of debt and equity funding to service the growing demand for its unique “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) product as usage continues to soar. This funding announcement comes only 3 months after Zilch raised €66.7 million.
The latest funding comes from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, DMG Ventures (the venture capital arm of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc) and others. Zilch, which was founded in 2018, will use the fresh capital to further accelerate its growth with nationwide media campaigns in the UK and the launch of its services in the US. With this latest round, Zilch is now one of the best funded European fintech startup at the Series B stage.
Philip Belamant, Founder and CEO at Zilch, commented: “As our customer numbers continue to grow, we’ve taken the decision to raise additional capital to service this phenomenal demand. As Zilch continues to scale at pace, we’re delighted that well-respected institutions such as Goldman Sachs and DMG Ventures share our vision of what credit should be in today’s world and how that can be delivered directly to customers in the most responsible way. By putting our customers first and building direct relationships with each of them, we are doing something no one else in the industry has done before.”
Zilch is committed to providing customers with the ability to manage their cash flow responsibly and is one of the first fully regulated BNPL providers in the UK. The investments, which included debt from the Private Credit business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, will accelerate Zilch’s expansion plans.
Pankaj Soni, Executive Director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, commented: “We’ve been tracking Zilch’s progress over the last 12 months and are impressed with the differentiated and direct to consumer approach that the company has taken to build its offering. We are delighted to be supporting their growth and look forward to build on our relationship in the coming years.”
Zilch allows its customers to shop wherever MasterCard is accepted and spread their payment over six weeks for zero interest and zero fees. This lightweight, direct-to-consumer model allows Zilch to build direct relationships with its customers – Zilch is currently the highest-rated product of its kind on Trustpilot – and scale significantly faster than its competitors as its deployment strategy is not restricted by borders or merchant acquisition and integration.
This funding round follows a series of announcements from Zilch, including its latest unique feature, Tap and Pay-over-time. The fintech aims to become the largest BNPL player in-store in the UK without the need for its customers to use annoying bar / QR codes.
Zilch is built upon responsibility, offers transparency and is the only player in the industry that uses Open Banking technology combined with soft credit checks to gain a real-time view and understanding of the consumer’s affordability profile and make an accurate recommendation of what they can afford, preventing problem debt.