Following $110M Series B extension, the ‘buy now, pay later’ platform brings on Albert Periu as CEO of Zilch USA to kick start growth
Miami, FL—August 11, 2021—Zilch, the London-based FinTech scaleup, today announced the acquisition of NepFin, a technology-enabled direct lender offering flexible capital solutions. The acquisition follows Zilch’s recent Series B extension which raised an additional $110M, bringing its total funding to more than $200M, that will help secure key licensing and regulatory capabilities, as well as expand its on the ground team in the U.S.
Albert Periu joins as CEO of the U.S. and Thomas Meister joins as COO & General Counsel in the U.S. Stemming from their experience at NepFin and Funding Circle, Periu and Meister bring tremendous industry knowledge in building out U.S. fintech lending businesses. While NepFin provides great technology in addition to a strong regulatory and operations infrastructure, NepFin has a California Finance Lenders License and compliance and regulatory framework. At the core of both businesses is a shared sense of responsibility for creating alternative methods for users to make purchases, without accruing debt or negatively impacting their credit.
“We’ve admired Zilch as a successful, fast growing innovator in the BNPL landscape for some time,” said Periu. “This is the second time one of my companies has been acquired by a U.K.-based company and I’m thrilled at how their mission, values and culture aligned with ours. Our team is looking forward to leveraging our prior experience, creating roots in Miami and attracting talent to solidify Zilch as a FinTech leader in the U.S. as we head into the end of 2021 and beyond.”
“We’ve been exploring growth options in the U.S. for some time and following the additional funding, now was the perfect time to take another meaningful step towards our U.S. launch,” said Philip Belamant, CEO and Founder of Zilch. “Albert, Tom and their team have done tremendous work and adding them to our team enables us to hit the ground running with regulation top of mind. We’re highly confident that the team will mirror and build upon the success of Zilch as we bring the most scalable BNPL product to the US market.”
This is just the first step in International growth for Zilch, the first truly over-the-top (OTT) BNPL product that allows its customers to shop freely 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 now 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.
By the end of the year, Zilch looks to scale the team considerably within the U.S. market. Areas of focus include targeting sales, marketing, compliance, customer service, and engineering. The team is excited to hone in on the recent Miami tech boom, leaning into the vibrant tech community that the city has fostered over the last several years, specifically in FinTech.
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.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed. For more information, visit: https://www.zilch.com/uk/.