Zilch scoops $30m equity round as customer numbers quadruple

The fintech has been adding 30,000 new customers to its platform each month.

Image source: Philip Belamant/Zilch

London-based Zilch has closed its oversubscribed Series B funding round with an additional $30m equity top-up.

The fintech, which is looking to shake-up the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) arena, only received its consumer credit authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority three weeks ago.

Investors in the round include co-founder of comparison website MoneySuperMarket, Simon Nixon and Curve investor, Gauss Ventures.

Zilch uses open banking, in partnership with fellow London-based fintech Credit Kudos, as well as soft credit checks to assess a customer’s creditworthiness and affordability.

Unlike traditional BNPL fintech, such as the likes of Klarna and Clearpay, Zilch lets customers pay in interest-free instalments at any online retailer where Mastercard is accepted, not just the ones supported by its platform.

Through open banking, the fintech ensures that customers can afford to repay their deferred purchases by using real-time insights into a consumer’s financial wellbeing and current expenditure.

Philip Belamant, founder and CEO of Zilch, said: "Customers recognise our dedication to focus on their needs. This is what sets us apart from other BNPL players in the market today and what continues to drive us in creating a new category - we want and can help people during these difficult times as our systems self adapt to the socio-economic conditions of the day and we feel privileged to be in a position to do so.”

“Zilch ensures customers never over-borrow. We make use of Open Banking and AI along with soft credit checks to determine each customer's level of affordability. As a result, Zilch’s customers rarely default and make use of the product as a cash flow management tool, which has proven to be of huge value to our customers.”

In the last six months, Zilch has seen its customer registration numbers quadruple and its transaction volumes increase by more than 100 per cent month on month.