Zilch extends its Series C funding round by $50m, bringing the total to $160m

By Joy Dumasia

Zilch, the London-based double unicorn, announced it had secured an additional $50 million in funding, taking the total raise for its Series C to $160 million. The extension brings Zilch’s total funding to more than $460 million in debt and equity and sees the FinTech company maintain its valuation. 

The additional capital will be used to further fund business growth, focusing on the US market, where Zilch recently opened its Miami office and launched with more than 150,000 pre-registered customers. Early numbers are showing significant momentum with growth rates of over 4x what was achieved in the UK, where Zilch reached 2 million new customers in just 18 months – over 2x faster than other leading FinTechs managed to reach the same milestone. 

In the last six months, Zilch has leveraged its innovative, direct-to-consumer approach to double underlying sales and revenue. Customers can pay on debit or credit (pay-in-4) for no interest or late fees anywhere. Customers have already benefited from over $55 million in savings and rewards by using Zilch instead of high-cost credit or debit cards that offer zero rewards. This differentiated model has seen Zilch achieve higher utilisation than any other peer in the space, with mature customer cohorts now using Zilch daily, resulting in net transaction margin profitability. 

Philip Belamant, CEO & Co-Founder, said: “In a world of rising interest rates and inflation, it has never been more important for customers to have access to a payment product that they can depend on for savings, deals and cash flow management with no interest or late fees of any kind. Open Banking data shows how customers of all ages are migrating away from traditional high-cost credit cards or overdrafts in favour of services like Zilch – saving them millions. This extension is a great endorsement of our unique model as well as our investors’ belief in our ability to deliver on our mission to create the world’s most empowering way for people to pay for anything, anywhere.” 

Sean O’Connor, Co-Founder, said: “Since we founded Zilch and began raising capital, the markets have been difficult to predict given COVID and now the downturn the markets are currently seeing. We believe our focus on alignment with the consumer, delivered by our innovative business model, has the potential to create significant long-term value for shareholders. Our extensive investment in communicating this message and developing our international network of renowned private, family office and institutional investors has enabled us to secure this extension at the same terms as our Series C, which is a testament to their belief in our significant market opportunity, and our ability to execute against it.” 

Recently, IBS Intelligence reported that Zilch, next-generation payments and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platform, has a BNPL 2.0 business model that works directly with consumers and features no fees or late charges and 2% instant cashback rewards launched in the US with over 150,000 pre-registered customers. Zilch is accepted everywhere Mastercard is accepted.