Alma has just completed a €210m Series C financing round
By Joy Dumasia
Alma, the French financial platform offering instalment payments and pay later solutions for merchants and consumers, has just completed a €210 million Series C financing round, of which €115 million in equity and €95 million in debt. Existing investors (Cathay Innovation, Eurazeo, Bpifrance via its Large Venture fund, Seaya Ventures, Picus Capital) participated and new investors Tencent, GR Capital, and Roosh Ventures. This round will help Alma accelerate the large scale delivery of their products and vision throughout the retail ecosystem in continental Europe.
Alma wants to reinvent the relationship between merchants and consumers: Alma enables the latter to buy what they want and upgrade to higher-quality items. The former will convert more customers and increase basket sizes. With more than 6,000 merchants of all industries using Alma, the company’s transaction volume has already exceeded 1 billion euros annually.
Louis Chatriot, Co-Founder and CEO of Alma, said: “We are creating the most trusted BNPL platform to swing the balance in favor of merchants and consumers. We want to be part of consumers’ daily lives and help them shop better, not just more. We strive to be an efficient and sane alternative to traditional consumer credit. It’s equally important for us to improve our merchants’ economics by bringing them new customers in a balanced relationship quite opposite to what we see from large Internet platforms.”
This €210 million fundraising will allow Alma to facilitate BNPL solutions to more than 270 million European consumers throughout France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium. In 2022, Alma plans to open new markets, especially the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Ireland and Austria. With its expansion in Europe, Alma is doubling its size to support the growth and recently hired Stéphanie Combe as Head of Finance, and Jonathan Trepo-Lantelme, as Chief Revenue Officer, to strengthen the team.
In 2022, Alma will focus on accelerating its international expansion, accompanying existing merchants on their operations abroad, and serving larger local merchants. The company has recently onboarded major French retailers and marketplaces as Alain Afflelou, Etam, Galeries Lafayette, Printemps and Ankorstore. In addition to this, they will continue to expand its product suite, particularly with its consumer-focused payment application, and scale existing products such as pay in up to 12 months and B2B payments.
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