Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) companies continue to attract buyers and investors alike as this week saw neobank Revolut announce it would work on a BNPL product, and PayPal bought Japanese BNPL provider Paidy for $2.7 billion. Meanwhile, in fintech funding, European BNPL technology provider Scalapay revealed a closed funding round that raised $155 million, Latin America-based Addi nabbed an additional $75 million, and U.S.-based home services BNPL Wisetack reported $44 million in a series B funding round.

Most of the funding rounds are coming from venture capitalists and private equities, rather than industry players, Ginger Schmeltzer, senior analyst for Aite Group’s retail banking and payments practice, told Bank Automation News.

“Investors are looking at the massive growth in the space — many large players are seeing their merchant sales volumes doubling year over year — and that there is a lot of white space left to grow into,” Schmeltzer said.

“Most BNPL providers make money from merchant fees based on transaction values, and most merchants see higher average order values and higher conversions when they offer BNPL. … So investors are looking at lots of potential growth, both converting credit card users to BNPL users and providing non-credit card users with a flexible payment option — 85-90% of BNPL installment payments are made with debit cards.”

Schmeltzer noted that Scalapay claims an 11% increase in conversions and 48% increase in spend per shopper.

According to FIS Worldpay’s Global Payments report this year, only about 2% of global e-commerce volume was on BNPL, but the 2020 report predicted it would be above 4% by 2024, Schmeltzer said. “I suspect they have revised that forecast significantly upward since then,” she added.

Scalapay

Italian BNPL vendor Scalapay raised $155 million to bring its total fundraise to $203 million in the two years since its launch, the company announced Thursday. The money brings the company’ to $700 million.

The series A funding round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Baleen Capital and Woodson Capital. The new investors join existing investors Fasanara Capital and Ithaca Investments.

Scalapay is focused on Southern Europe and enables customers to buy now and pay later without interest on luxury fashion items. The company counts Alberta Ferretti, Intimissimi, Liu Jo, Luisa Spagnoli, Moschino, MSGM and Twinset as clients, and it recently signed a three-year contract as the primary BNPL platform for the famous Milan Fashion Week.

BNPL gives customers a chance to “to enjoy the small pleasures in life without needing to compromise,” said Simone Mancini, co-founder and CEO of Scalapay, in a release.

“We want to bring the Italian concept of dolce vita and slowing down to enjoy the small things in life to the rest of the world, via our partners,” Mancini said.

“The sweet life” apparently appeals primarily to the young. The release notes that many younger customers are using Scalapay to buy now, pay later for fashion items such as Prada bags and Valentino shoes.

Scalapay will use the funding to pay grow its team and operations to scale internationally and to offer new products in luxury, fashion and travel, the company stated.

Addi

The Latin American-based BNPL and e-commerce company Addi on Tuesday announced a new $75 million raised in addition to its already $65 million series B round.

Addi is currently available for e-commerce, mobile, and brick-and-mortar purchases in Brazil and Colombia, but it plans to expand across Latin America, starting with Mexico early next year, the announcement stated.

Online retailers such as Arturo Calle, Keep Running, Claro and Mario Hernandez use Addi for BNPL. The fintech claims it has experienced exponential growth since the start of 2021, with the volume of payments powered on its platform growing 13 times over what it ran at the beginning of the year. It did not provide specific numbers, however.

The funding round was led by Greycroft with participation from new investors GGV Capital, Citius Capital, and Intersection Growth Partners, as well as existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Citius VC, Endeavor Catalyst, Foundation Capital, Monashees, and Quona Capital. Union Square’s Opportunity Fund, which led the previous round, also participated.

In late May, the startup announced it had raised $35 million in an equity round led by Union Square’s Opportunity Fund, and $30 million in debt funding from Architect Capital.

Wisetack

Wisetack, a BNPL service for in-person services like home and auto repair, announced Thursday a $45 million funding round, bringing its total raise to $64 million raised since the fintech startup’s 2018 founding.

The series B round was led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners, with existing investors Greylock Partners and Bain Capital Ventures, among others, also participating in the round.

The San Francisco, Calif.-based company partners with SaaS vendors, such as Housecall Pro and Jobber, to offer consumer financing to their customer bases of home services professionals.

Wisetack said it differentiates itself by focusing on service-based businesses and by offering API integrations into business software, allowing in-person businesses to offer BNPL to consumers.

Jeff App

Latvian startup Jeff App, which provides a data-enabled loan brokerage platform for unbanked and underbanked customers, closed a $1.5 million seed extension round Tuesday. That brings the fintech’s total raised to $2.5 million.

Jeff App provides alternative data, integrated from multiple sources such as smartphone metadata and digital footprint and focuses on Asia, where approximately 1 billion people have limited or no access to financial services due to a lack of credit scores and other traditional financial data, the company stated in its announcement.

The approach has led to more financial inclusion in Vietnam and growth for Jeff App, co-founder and CEO Tom Niparts said in the announcement.

“The data shows that our approach is not only helping people in terms of faster and easier financial comparison, but they are also able to achieve more approvals in a smarter way. Both unit economics and growth have seen unexpected dynamics since the beginning of 2021,” Niparts stated.

The round was led by J12 Ventures. Joining the round were iSeed Ventures and Toy Ventures, alongside existing investors EstBAN, Startup Wise Guys and other angels.

The funds will be used to scale the team from 15 to more than 40 employees, with a particular focus on data science specialists and sales and marketing staff.