LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Zilch, the world’s first merchant card, today announces that it has passed the 3 million customer milestone – surpassing fintech heavyweights such as Revolut, Starling Bank and N26. Zilch’s direct-to-consumer approach continues to outperform the market, demonstrating significantly stronger levels of customer engagement and unit economics. Zilch’s unique ad-subsidized payment network generates advertising revenue every time customers spend, which it passes on to them in the form of free credit, savings, deals and discounts. This unique approach has resulted in record customer growth and a profitable product offering.
The announcement comes just six months after Zilch galloped past the 2 million user mark, and is a testament to the business’ innovative approach – one that has seen it double underlying sales and triple revenue in the past six months – with brands like Apple now on the move trying to replicate this winning formula as Zilch surpasses 6% of the UK adult population using the product.
This news comes despite a worsening economic climate, downward pressure on valuations and reduced growth rates in global fintech markets. However, Zilch continues his progression. In April, a new partnership with Experian UK, the global information services company, was announced, and in May, Zilch launched its services in the US market. More recently, the company raised an oversubscribed $50m top-up to its Series C funding round in June, maintaining its valuation.
Philip Belamant, Zilch’s CEO and co-founder said: “Everywhere you look there are high energy bills, rising inflation and a general sense of tension gripping household finances. At Zilch, we work hard to give people the most empowering way to pay for anything, anywhere – whether credit (pay in 4), debit (pay in 1) with instant cashback in rewards or savings It is therefore very pleasing to have reached 3 million customers and to know that so many consumers are reaping the benefits of access to the best of debit, credit and savings through our product.
“Going from 0 to 3 million customers in just 24 months has been an unreal journey and this phenomenal trajectory is certainly a testament to the hard work of the Zilch team. We continue to be focused on delivering value for our customers for whom we have already generated savings of over £75m. We remain focused on delivering a sustainable product in the most responsible way, with gross profit now behind us and a clear track to becoming a profitable company on the bottom line.”
Currently, Zilch achieves higher utilization than any peer in the space with mature customer cohorts paying daily, and 40 percent of daily sales are now processed through Zilch’s Tap & Pay payment functionality. The business, whose credit option was one of the first ‘buy now pay later’ providers in the UK to be regulated and receive a consumer credit license from the FCA, secured a lending license in California earlier this year and has been awarded a TrustPilot score of 4.6 / 5 from more than 43,000 reviews.
The business has an impressive list of global investors, which includes Ventura Capital, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Gauss Ventures, DMG Ventures, M&F Fund and Limited Ventures. Zilch’s partners include some of the world’s most advanced fintech enablers including Cross River, Checkout.com, Experian, FTA, GPS, Monavate, Marqeta, Mastercard, Onfido, Provenir, Socure and Yapily.
ABOUT ZILCH
Zilch, the world’s first Commerce Card, is a payment technology company headquartered in the UK. We offer our customers the best and most empowering way to pay, whenever and wherever they spend. Using Zilch’s Virtual Mastercard which combines the best of debit, credit and savings, our customers can either earn rewards on debit payments in the form of cashback (‘Pay in 1’) or spread interest-free repayments over six weeks (‘Pay in 4’) . This is made possible by the proprietary Ad-Subsidized Payment Network (ASPN) that Zilch has built, which in a cookie-free world enables merchants worldwide to connect directly with the millions of Zilch customers they could not otherwise reach and offer them savings, deals and discounts.
By working directly with consumers rather than merchants, Zilch allows customers to pay with either rewards-earning debit or interest-free credit, both online and in-store, anywhere Mastercard is accepted. To ensure we help our customers manage cash flow responsibly when making credit payments, we set dynamic loan limits using best-in-market data from credit reference agencies, open banking and behavioral data analytics. Together, these generate a real-time, comprehensive 360-degree overview of a customer’s affordability profile, so that we can set personal loan limits accordingly. To further strengthen our customer security, we are fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, having obtained a consumer credit license prior to launch.
Since launching as an FCA-regulated business in the UK in September 2020 and in the US in May 2022, Zilch has amassed over 3 million customers. In that time we have given our customers over £75m in combined rewards and savings on fees and interest. Zilch is Europe’s fastest-ever company to go from Series A to double unicorn status, in just 14 months, after raising capital at a $2 billion valuation in November 2021 and maintaining that valuation in a subsequent funding round.
For more information, visit: www.zilch.com.
