Zilch raised $80 million, an all-equity Series B that values the company at over $500 million.
The funding is coming from Gauss Ventures and M&F Fund, among other unnamed investors. The startup has up to now opted to raise from individuals and smaller firms, CEO and founder Philip Belamant said in an interview, although that may change in future rounds as it looks both to bring in a tier-one debt line, not just to fuel growth in its current market of the UK but to expand to more countries, including the United States.
For now, Zilch has financed usage of its service off its own balance sheet: it has more than 500,000 users, Belamant said, and is seeing sign-ups of around 4,000 a day on its app.
The company has also recently rolled out a ‘tap and pay-over-time’ feature that lets shoppers make in-store payments with a wave of their digital wallet, with the cost spread over a six week period.
