Category: News

~ ASPN, Zilch’s proprietary ad-sales platform, achieves conversion rates of up to 55%, surpassing the search industry average by 10+ times – enabling the Googlisation of Payments ~

~ The Ad-Subsidised-Payments-Network allows retailers to offer contextualised advertising deals directly to customers through its vertically integrated payments app

~ Platform brands such as Amazon and Ebay achieve average conversions of 59% ~

~ Food & Drink sector witnessed particularly outstanding results, with brands achieving an average conversion rate of c.70% ~

~ Significantly reduced product return rates across all sectors, averaging just 7% compared to the typical ecommerce range of 20-30% ~

Zilch, the pioneering direct-to-consumer (D2C) payments technology and advertising platform, is today announcing the official rollout of its Ad-Subsidised-Payments-Network (ASPN) to third parties through open APIs. The proprietary ad-sales platform has demonstrated unprecedented performance, delivering outstanding results for retailer partners and, more importantly, providing customers with over $160 million in savings via cashback, rewards and interest-free credit.

Zilch initially created ASPN to power its own ad-subsidised Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) product offering, attracting over 3 million registered customers in just 24 months and seeing more than 5,000 retailers reallocate their advertising spend away from clicks and impressions to a payments platform that only charges for sales. With more than $1.7 billion in commerce having been transacted through the platform, ASPN is now being made available through open APIs to any third-party app / card issuer that wants to participate in the network, which is already integrated with 38 million merchants worldwide. Partners can access the network of dynamic commissions through APIs which provide new revenue streams outside of interchange. Merchants can adjust these commissions and attribute sales (online and offline) in real time without any change to their existing payment infrastructure. 

The democratisation of access to Zilch’s ASPN will create new business-to-business revenue for the firm and substantial additional revenue opportunities for partners, all while accelerating Zilch’s mission: to eliminate the cost of consumer credit (using ad subsidies), for good.

The unparalleled performance of Zilch’s ASPN platform demonstrates the power of retail media, helping Zilch become a game-changer in today’s fintech industry. An analysis of the data from ASPN’s performance shows:

• Brands can achieve a conversion rate (the proportion of customers who make a purchase after interacting with the advert) of up to 55% – significantly higher than the industry averages for traditional forms of digital advertising that range from c.2% to 10%.

• Food and drink brands are converting at an average of c.70% of ad interactions into sales. Brands such as Amazon achieve average conversions of nearly 60%.

• Retailers also saw product return rates plummet, averaging 7% across all sectors compared to the average e-commerce range of 20-30%. This shows how Zilch helps retailers reach customers with a genuine intent to buy rather than stoking impulse purchases, which is hugely beneficial to both the retailer and the consumer (not to mention the environment too).

1. Zilch’s current top 30 merchant partners alone generate a combined $700 billion of revenue annually and pay an average commission to Zilch of over 6% on each purchase made via the Zilch platform. That speaks to the commercial opportunity for Zilch and its new retail partners as well as the scalability of this unique business model.
   

Philip Belamant, CEO and Co-Founder of Zilch, said: “Our vision with Zilch was to offer all customers an incredible payments product that would eliminate the cost of consumer credit for good. To achieve this, we generate ad revenue from merchants when customers shop and use this to subsidise  our powerful reward-earning debit and zero-interest credit in one digital card that customers can use anywhere. This is what we call the Googlisation of Payments. Uniquely, merchants can redirect ad spend to Zilch away from clicks and impressions on traditional platforms that suffer fraud, lack of attribution and don’t necessarily convert into sales.

“Opening up ASPN to third parties is an important step in creating what could be a trillion-dollar-plus payments ad-marketplace. On one side you will have millions of consumers transacting billions every month and receiving access to interest-free-credit, savings and rewards on their purchases. On the other, you’ll have hundreds of thousands of retailers bidding to get in front of a massive closed-loop network of ultra-high-intent consumers with a sustainable means to spend.

“We truly believe that this is the future of the advertising industry, and that our current results, across almost $2 billion of commerce to date, bear evidence to that. The market continues to see a decline in spend on search and social media advertising in favour of retail media, where retailers sell online ads using their first-party data, precisely because retail media provides advertisers with better targeting at times of maximum ‘intent’, higher conversion and more accurate attribution. What data from ASPN shows is that, when you place those ads on a consumer’s favourite payments platform and enable them to make the purchase, rather than on the checkout page of an ecommerce site, the performance is unparalleled.” 

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Introducing Zilch and the UK’s leading debt charity, StepChange’s, debut public appearance at Innovate Finance’s Global Summit (IFGS) 2023. Our Chief Communications Officer, Ryan Mendy, and StepChange’s Director of Client Experience, Gail Arkle, were joined by Innovate Finance’s co-founder, Justin Fitzpatrick, to discuss how our innovative solutions are helping vulnerable consumers manage their finances during difficult times.

Watch the fireside to discover the importance of how market-first partnerships like Zilch and StepChange are creating a more financially inclusive society.

Zilch’s vision is to eliminate the cost of credit for consumers. For good.

Time’s up for lobbyists trying to slim down progressive new rules for Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL). Last night, a consultation by HM Treasury on new regulations for BNPL lending came to a close. Whatever happens, ministers must keep momentum and not water down the legislation.  

It’s vital that the government does everything it can to make sure consumers are properly protected. Vital because we are seeing the largest change in how people pay in decades and because, until now, too many lenders have done their business, lending billions in credit to the public, without the high standards, accountability and consumer protections expected of regulated firms.

BNPL services have become so integral to how consumers spend that BNPL accounted for almost one pound in every eight spent online this January. Like consumers’ habits, the British economy has changed. Inflation is down slightly, but cost-of-living pressures remain intense. For some, access to interest-free, affordable credit is the only way to manage spending from month to month. Why would you opt for an interest-bearing revolving line in its place?

Rising demand for 0%-interest credit has led to a growing number of fintech companies offering these services. In a mark of validation, many high-street banks have entered this new space too and more recently, Apple. Yet, until now, regulation has been busy playing catch up.

In fact, the majority of firms have been operating solely under an exemption to the UK’s existing consumer credit regulations. That has meant unregulated BNPL businesses have operated without accountability, while processing short-term loans running into the billions. This left consumers without a right of appeal or redress if things went wrong.  

Thankfully, that situation is about to change. In February, the UK Government set out proposals to tighten regulation of the BNPL sector, clamping down on unregulated providers. To date, most firms have paid lip service to the idea of greater oversight and control without taking action. Now, the customer safeguards they could – and should – have introduced voluntarily will become mandatory.  

We support the government’s plans – and would go further still. There are two areas where we believe the incoming regulations should be tightened for the whole credit industry, not only the BNPL sector.

The first relates to what is called ‘credit stacking’. This is where customers are allowed to pay off one debt with another form of debt, such as using a high-interest-bearing credit card to pay off an interest-free instalment plan with a BNPL provider. All this does is shift the debt around, often moving it to a card carrying a significantly higher interest rate than would be imposed by an interest-free BNPL agreement. The BNPL provider is handing off the risk to the credit card company and the customer is being “refinanced” out of a zero-interest loan into an interest bearing one.

This short-sighted practice should be banned outright. It allows the new providers to underprice risk and offload defaults to credit card companies, leaving them with higher bad debt losses, and transforms interest-free credit into revolving interest-bearing credit for customers. This all perpetuates problem debt.

The second area relates to how customers’ borrowing and performance is communicated to credit reference agencies (CRAs). The government would like BNPL providers to report to these organisations, which until recently haven’t been ready for accurate reporting on the sector. Fortunately, as of this year the major UK agencies are ready and so all credit lenders, inclusive of BNPL, should now share data with all prime CRAs – as Zilch already does.

In short, it is our belief that all credit lenders – BNPL or otherwise – should report to all credit referencing agencies, and this should be reflected in consumers’ scores today. Doing this would offer the highest form protection to consumers.

When that’s done correctly the ecosystem will surely begin to sing. It will allow all lenders full visibility of individuals’ outstanding debt and repayments, helping lenders to better assess affordability, further protecting customers from over-borrowing. So far many BNPL firms have been unwilling to report at all, or to all three major credit reference agencies. Of those that do, most don’t do so in a way that 1) ensures repayment performance is reported every month, and 2) influences their customers’ credit scores. This is something we at Zilch already announced in January 2023.

If properly operated by responsible, regulated companies, BNPL can deliver real benefits. We’re not reinventing the wheel but rather making the wheel more accessible, affordable and easier to understand (most today don’t even know what APR stands for). These services are significantly more affordable than how we all used to borrow money for short periods – those expensive credit cards or online loans, for which the average APR is now over 30%.

With 5 million UK consumers deemed ‘credit invisible’, we need an industry standard for credit reference agency reporting that incentivises and rewards responsible spending, while making sure that BNPL providers conduct appropriate affordability checks on borrowers and help other lenders do the same.  

History has taught us technology always arrives before regulation. The UK can safeguard people and build a system of regulation that serves as a blueprint for regulators and governments globally. It seems that we are well on our way to doing just that.

Watch Philip Belamant, CEO & Co-Founder of Zilch, sit down with Simon Squibb, investor, entrepreneur and Chief Purpose Officer at The Purposeful Project, as they delve into the mind of the visionary entrepreneur, as Zilch continues in it’s mission to revolutionise the way we think about and interact with finance.

Zilch has become the fastest European fintech company to go from Series A to $2bn valuation, and in this episode, Simon and Philip go deep into the core values and mission that enabled Zilch to reach this huge level of success so quickly.

Watch the full interview here or see the links below to the Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Podcast links:

Open banking platform Yapily and payments technology company Zilch have agreed a groundbreaking partnership that will provide millions of people with better access to 0% interest swift repayment credit. 

The partnership marks the first time Yapily has teamed up with a provider of consumer credit via Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and will see Zilch leverage Yapily’s innovative open banking platform and expertise to deliver an even more accelerated and superior credit decisioning process, responsibly, at a time when it is most needed in the lending industry.

Recent research from Yapily, which surveyed 2,000 full time professionals in the UK, found 59% of people have used credit cards to supplement their income over the past 12 months. Meanwhile, 34% have used overdrafts, 21% have turned towards personal loans, and 9% have taken out payday loans. 

The interest rates, fees, and charges associated with high-cost or short-term credit options are leaving vulnerable individuals in negative debt cycles. The study also revealed that those earning £15,000 or less were the highest users of personal loans over the past 12 months – with 26% of respondents in that salary bracket having used them. With the cost of living a significant concern for 95% of those polled, there is a growing need for affordable and accessible credit solutions. Data from Zilch’s own research shows that interest on credit cards alone is costing the British public an estimated £15 billion a year. Broken down that works out to be £41 million a day.

Furthermore, figures released by The Money Charity recently reveal that credit card balances have increased by half a billion pounds per month over the last 12 months in the UK, rising from £55 billion in January 2022 to almost £64 billion in January 2023.

By partnering together, Yapily will enable Zilch to access an individual’s risk and affordability profile more accurately than is currently exercised by traditional assessments. This makes it easier to provide Zilch’s 3 million customers with credit options that are tailored to their specific financial situation. This approach will empower individuals to manage their finances better.

Philip Belamant, CEO and Co-Founder of Zilch, commented: “I believe we are probably at the early stage of seeing the greatest consumer shift in payments in a quarter century –  since PayPal was founded. In the context of the cost of living crisis, it’s never been more critical for people to have access to 0% interest responsible credit when managing cashflow. That’s what this new partnership with Yapily embraces – helping Zilch to achieve by maximising the consumer benefits of open banking technology. The traditional consumer credit scoring systems have prevented smarter decisioning with ultimately credit-worthy borrowers. Blocking consumers from timely accessing both prime and affordable finance. Creating a trap for the most vulnerable in society. With Yapily and open banking, we are able to advance how we provide our millions of British customers all the trust, protections and benefits they ordinarily expect from traditional high street banks, but avoid all the costs.”

Stefano Vaccino, CEO and Founder of Yapily, added: “Over five million people in the UK have little to no credit history, greatly reducing their access to mainstream financial services. In times like these, it’s important that everyone has access to the credit they need, when they need it most. But critically, this must be based on what they can actually afford at risk of falling on even harder times. It’s great to see more lenders like Zilch turn to open banking to meet the needs of individual borrowers. I look forward to watching our partnership grow and enabling Zilch to deliver fairer credit to millions of people now and in the future.”

The announcement follows the news that providers of credit via BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) will now be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This move is welcomed by Zilch, which has been regulated by the FCA since April 2020, before the organisation launched in September later the same year. 

In January of this year, the company announced it would be sharing information with all prime UK Credit Referencing Agencies (CRAs) in a deal that will see customers be able to build and influence their credit scores.
Zilch also recently announced a collaboration with leading UK debt charity StepChange to become the first provider of credit via buy now pay later to fully integrate StepChange Direct into its platform. The partnership will see Zilch provide innovation that will better advance the user experience and help customers at what is usually a vulnerable time by creating a smoother and quicker process when being referred for support.

London, 7 February 2023: Zilch, the UK-headquartered payments technology company, today announces it has signed an industry-first partnership to work with StepChange, the UK’s leading debt advice charity, which will help Zilch’s millions of customers access help, should they need it, more quickly during the current cost of living crisis. 

This support for StepChange will see Zilch become the first provider of credit via buy now pay later to fully integrate StepChange Direct into its platform. The payments technology company will also go one step further and provide innovation that will better advance the user experience. 

To help customers at what is usually a vulnerable time, Zilch and StepChange have worked together to identify a number of steps that are currently required when they are in financial stress and are referred for support that can be removed. StepChange’s immensely talented team will also work with the Zilch vulnerability team on how to recognise and make referrals to debt advice more effectively. 

Zilch will be making financial contributions to StepChange through the Fair Share funding mechanism, supporting the charity in its operations and ensuring that UK consumers continue to benefit from easy access to an independent charity committed to helping people in financial difficulty become debt-free.

Working with StepChange comes off the back of Zilch more recently becoming the first provider of its kind to report customer behaviour to all major UK Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs).

To date Zilch has provided its customers with over £95 million in aggregate savings as it charges zero interest for instalment loans and offers cashback and deals of up to 10% back when paying by debit. Zilch was one of the first companies in the space to be regulated by the FCA and sets dynamic, personalised affordability limits on customers’ total borrowing to make every transaction affordable. Through this support for StepChange, Zilch customers can be immediately and seamlessly referred for free high-quality independent advice, provided through StepChange’s omni-channel debt advice service, whenever needed (at which point further Zilch credit is also temporarily suspended).

Today’s announcement is Zilch’s latest industry-leading innovation to promote financial inclusion and help protect consumers from problem debt. Last month Zilch announced that it had reached a ground-breaking deal with the most reputable UK CRAs that will see its customers’ borrowing and repayment activity using Zilch credit begin influencing their credit scores and profiles for the first time. This innovation provides millions of British consumers the opportunity to build and improve their credit scores without making use of high-cost, revolving credit products. It will also boost consumer protections and financial health throughout the wider UK consumer credit ecosystem by giving other lenders visibility of Zilch users’ current and historic borrowing activity.

Philip Belamant, CEO and co-founder of Zilch, said: “The entire ethos of Zilch is about being customer-first and we’ve built the business around doing the right thing by our customers – even if it’s difficult – every time. It’s why we’ve invested so much time and resource into building a meaningfully proactive relationship with StepChange. To Zilch, this partnership is a natural and obvious one – why would any responsible lender of credit not want to align with an establishment such as StepChange that is doing so much to support people in these hard times?

“This partnership ensures we provide our customers with the very best support if they do fall behind on repayments – all for free.”

Phil Andrew, CEO of StepChange, said: “StepChange has been helping people for 30 years – and during that time has supported millions of people seeking help with problem debt.

“Over the last three decades a lot has changed – with new challenges like the cost-of-living crisis and new financial products.

“But one thing has not changed and that is our commitment to support people struggling with problem debt and to work with a wide network of partners and supporters to ensure that those who need help can access it. 

“Zilch’s commitment to our work through the payment of Fair Share contributions, as well as finding innovative ways to minimise the barriers to people seeking help, will support us at StepChange to continue our important mission.”

ABOUT ZILCH 

Zilch is a UK-headquartered payments technology company. We offer our customers the best and most empowering way to pay, whenever and wherever they spend. Using Zilch’s virtual Mastercard that combines the best of debit, credit and savings, our customers can either earn rewards on debit payments in the form of immediate cashback (‘Pay in 1’) or spread the cost by in-app toggling over to pay with credit to access interest-free repayments over six weeks (‘Pay in 4’). This is made possible by the proprietary Ad-Subsidised Payment Network (ASPN) that Zilch has built, which in a cookieless world enables retailers around the world to connect directly with the millions of Zilch customers they otherwise couldn’t reach and offer them savings, deals and discounts. 

By partnering directly with consumers rather than merchants, Zilch allows customers to pay using either reward-earning debit or interest-free credit, both online and in-store, anywhere that Mastercard is accepted. To ensure that we are helping our customers to manage their cash flow responsibly when they make credit payments, we set dynamic borrowing limits using best-in-market data from credit reference agencies, open banking and behavioural data analysis. Together these generate a real-time, comprehensive, 360-degree view of a customer’s affordability profile, allowing us to set personalised borrowing limits accordingly. To further bolster our customer safeguards, we are fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, having obtained a consumer credit license prior to our 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 registered customers. In that time, we have provided our customers with over £95 million in aggregate 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 $2bn valuation in November 2021 and maintaining that valuation in a subsequent funding round in Summer 2022.   

For more information, visit: www.zilch.com. 

Contacts: 

Zilch – Ryan Mendy, Chief Communications Officer:  

[email protected]  

For any media enquiries, please contact: 

[email protected] 

ABOUT STEPCHANGE 

StepChange Debt Charity is the UK’s largest debt advice charity, helping hundreds of thousands of people a year. 

Founded in 1993, StepChange supports people experiencing debt problems through telephone and online services, and campaigns for change to reduce the harm and stigma associated with debt.

How your readers can get help with their debts

We provide the UK’s most comprehensive debt advice service, from budgeting tips through to managing debt solutions that enable to people to pay off or clear debts. All our free debt advice is available by phone or on our website.

StepChange is currently experiencing problems with imposter firms, who pass themselves off as the charity in online adverts. As these imposters are prominent online, if you are directing an advice seeker towards our services, please include a direct link to our website: https://www.stepchange.org/

Our Helpline: 0800 138 1111

When we founded Zilch back in 2018, we were looking to answer one simple and fundamental question: is it possible to do for payments (and credit) what Google did for search? Is it possible to use advertising revenue to fund (or at least subsidise) the cost of payments, credit, savings, and rewards?

That framing of our business model can surprise people – even those who know our company well. But behind the scenes, it’s something all our talented team and investors believe in and is what clearly differentiates us from our competitors. It’s also why we’re confident in our growth strategy as we move into 2023 and beyond.

The model

Google offers its core business for free and funds it by selling adverts, meaning it can offer users an unparalleled, sustainable service – free search. Meta came along and did the exact same thing with social media. But, until we launched Zilch, nobody had ever used the same approach to bring value to customers whenever they pay. 

More specifically, if we could find a way to earn advertising revenue from retailers each and every time someone paid for something, then we could pass that revenue back to the customer in the form of free/subsidised credit, discounts, deals or rewards. That’s our model and our founding idea. We call it our Ad-Subsidised Payments Network (ASPN, pronounced ‘Aspen’). One of the major appeals of this approach is that global advertising spend is an enormous revenue pool on which to build a scalable and sustainable payments business – set to be worth more than $1 trillion annually by 2025.

Google and then Meta rode this wave to trillion-dollar valuations of their own. Those two companies alone account for roughly half of all digital ad spend but humbly, we believe that a payments platform is an even more appealing destination for advertisers to spend their marketing budgets – one doesn’t have to search to buy and certainly doesn’t have to use social media to buy, but one must pay.

So why is this possible now? Well the ad industry has been changing and we are all tired of paying for clicks and impressions…

The evolution of the advertising industry

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” So said John Wanamaker, the Gilded-Age-era American department store entrepreneur.

The reason that search was able to wrestle advertising spend away from traditional media was precisely because it could better target ads and attribute outcomes to every dollar spent. Then social media enabled equally good ad outcome measurement but even better targeting.

The world has changed, however. Apple’s new privacy controls upended the targeting and measurement mechanisms around which a whole industry was built. Meanwhile, advertisers are increasingly aware of the ubiquity of ad fraud on search and social media.

Advertisers’ growing discontent with the digital behemoths with whom they spend most of their budgets can be seen in the growth of ‘retail media’. Retailers are now a major force in the online ad space with Amazon at the vanguard. In Q3 2022, Amazon generated quarterly advertising revenues of over $9.5 bn; less than five years ago advertising wasn’t even its own line item in the company’s financial reporting.

There are multiple benefits to advertising with retailers. You reach receptive consumers who are already planning to make a purchase. You get greater visibility of conversions into sales. And, in a cookie-less world, your ads can be targeted based on the retailer’s own ‘first-party data’ on what shoppers have previously bought rather than inferring what they might buy based on look-alike behaviour.

But there are also drawbacks. Most obviously, you can and would only place adverts with a retailer who stocks your product and they can only target your ads based on what that customer has bought from them in the past.

The Googlisation of Payments

Enter Zilch. A payments product which a customer can use whenever and wherever they make a purchase – online or offline – would have near unlimited earnings potential from ads. We can put the right brand or product in front of the right customers at the right time, and not only measure the conversion of the sale, but enable it, by providing them with the means to pay.

It’s that unique positioning that has allowed us to build our Ad-Subsidised Payments Network. An ecosystem of millions of Zilch customers, with money to spend, who use our product 80-100 times a year on average, is connected to thousands of competing retailers who can offer targeted deals based on the richest possible first-party data. We take a cut of the advertising revenue and pass the rest back to the customer in the form of market-leading cash back or interest-free short-term credit.

The results speak for themselves. Average e-commerce conversion rates are 1-2%. But as of December 2022, Zilch’s top 10 retailers convert on average 55.4%, with some as high as 72%. This means it’s converting around 30-70x more than the industry standard of search and social.

Payments have traditionally always been a thin-margin business (read: no value to customers) and we are proving that by leveraging growing ad spend as the shift to retail media accelerates. In this new cookie-less world payments businesses like Zilch can sustainably grow at an exponential rate while customers reap the rewards – literally.

Onwards and upwards.

Philip
CEO and Co-Founder, Zilch

P.s to discuss or hear more, reach out to my team directly on: [email protected]

• Zilch is now profitable across its product suite having doubled underlying sales and tripled revenue in the last six months – with eyes firmly set on bottom-line profitability in the near future 
• Europe’s fastest fintech to go from Series A to double unicorn, passes 3 million customers in just 24 months

London, 02 November 2022: Zilch, the world’s first Commerce Card, today announces it has raced past the 3 million customer milestone – outpacing fintech heavyweights like Revolut, Starling Bank and N26.  Zilch’s direct-to-consumer approach continues to outperform the market showing significantly stronger levels of customer engagement and unit economics. Zilch’s unique Ad-Subsidised-Payments-Network generates advertising revenue each time its 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-breaking customer growth and a profitable product proposition.

The announcement comes a mere six months after Zilch galloped past the 2 million user figure, and is a testament to the business’ innovative approach – an approach that’s seen it double underlying sales and tripled revenue in the last six months – with brands like Apple now moving to try and replicate this winning formula as Zilch surpasses 6% of the UK adult population using its product. 

This news lands despite a worsening economic climate, downward pressures on valuations and reduced growth rates in global fintech markets. However, Zilch continues its progression. In April, a new partnership with Experian UK, the global information services company, was announced, and in May, Zilch launched its services into 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’re working flat out to bring people the most empowering way to pay for anything, anywhere – whether that be credit (pay in 4), debit (pay in 1) with instant cashback in rewards, or savings.  It’s therefore highly pleasing to have hit 3 million customers and 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 remain focussed on delivering value for our customers for whom we’ve already generated savings of over £75 million. We remain focussed on providing a sustainable product in the most responsible way, with gross profit now behind us and a clear track to becoming a bottom-line profitable business.” 

At present Zilch is achieving higher utilisation than any other peer in the space with mature customer cohorts making payments daily, and 40 per cent of daily sales now processed through Zilch’s Tap & Pay payment feature. 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 licence from the FCA, secured a lending licence in California earlier this year and has chalked up 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.

Philip Belamant, CEO and Co-Founder of Zilch, has been named EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 for the London and South East region of the UK. 

One of the most prestigious competitive business awards for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies around the world, Philip Belamant was selected by an independent panel of judges based on his entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth and impact, amongst other core contributions and attributes. Previous winners of the coveted award include well-known entrepreneurs, such as Ben Francis, CEO of GymShark, Zilch co-Founder Sean O’Connor and Steven Bartlett the then CEO of Social Chain.

Philip Belamant is the Co-Founder of Zilch, Europe’s fastest Fintech company to ever go from Series A to a double Unicorn. The London-based firm, which combines the best of what consumers know and understand about credit and debit, has seen unrivalled success; amassing a customer base of nearly 6% of the UK adult population in under 2 years – two-times faster than any other fintech. 

It’s this high-scale growth that has continued to impress investors, most notably when recently Zilch extended its Series C by adding an oversubscribed $50m of equity, taking the total amount received in funding to more than $460m. Crucially, the raise maintained the startup’s $2 billion valuation at a time when other  flagship competitors have reported raising fresh funds at considerably lower valuations. 

A serial entrepreneur – Philip Belamant has launched several thriving payment industry businesses, with early success occurring in the emerging African markets. In these regions, his market knowledge and resourcefulness positioned him to design disruptive electronic payments systems in regions that lacked a robust digital infrastructure,  helping to advance and improve the lives of millions of people. 

Today, as CEO of Zilch with its direct-to-consumer business model, Philip Belamant is taking the fight to a trillion-dollar “mount everest of debt & high fees” credit card market that has gone substantially unchallenged since its birth in the 1950s with Diners Club and Bank of Americard. The first step of this journey was to obtain a full consumer credit licence, making it the first major pay-later provider to do so. Still to date, no major BNPL firm has obtained a credit licence. This proved crucial to Zilch’s future success – when in June of this year, the UK government issued a response to its October 2021 consultation on the regulation of BNPL. The key takeaway is that BNPL firms will need to be authorised by the FCA, undertake affordability checks and with immediate effect, any unregulated BNPL credit provider must comply with the FCA’s financial promotion rules – all things Zilch has  adhered to since 2020. Including not allowing customers to sign up and use a credit card to fund repayments. 

In taking this strategic step, Philip Belamant created a BNPL 2.0 product. This plugs the holes created by the traditional credit cards and the first-generation BNPL products — most of which are not regulated and only allow customers to shop at certain merchants.

Philip Belamant, CEO & Co-Founder, Zilch said: “At Zilch specifically, our aim has always been to create the most empowering way to pay for anything, anywhere, rather than trying to create an “all-inclusive shopping destination, where the merchant is the direct customer” like others have focused. With Zilch, I wanted to focus on providing ease of use and value flywheel around customer transactions, like offering an instantaneous cashback offer in rewards.

“I’m honoured that Ernst and Young, an advisor entrusted by the likes of Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook, has recognised us for the Entrepreneur of the Year award and truly goes to reflect the hard work of my brilliant team. For more than three decades, EY have recognised audacious, industry-changing business leaders and entrepreneurs who disrupted industries and created new product categories. I wish all the shortlisted individuals the best of luck at the national ceremony.” 

Philip Belamant will now be considered for the 2022 EY Entrepreneur of the Year ‘National’ awards, to be decided in November. 

EY – the advisory firm to the likes of Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Netflix and Time Warner, to name a few – established the globally recognised EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ programme more than 30 years ago. Today, it operates in more than 60 countries around the world. It aims to showcase their recognition of the  entrepreneurial achievements among individuals and companies that demonstrate what they see as inspiring leadership, vision and success. 

Lynn Rattigan, EY’s Chief Operating Office for the UK & Ireland and Entrepreneur Of The Year UK Partner Sponsor, said: “This year’s cohort have shown how business leaders are embracing their responsibility as role models and are continually inspiring the next generation. We thank them for making such a positive impact on their teams, the UK economy and our communities. I feel privileged to be a part of this incredible community.”

Victoria Price UK EY Private Tax Leader and Entrepreneur Of The Year UK Partner Lead said: “I feel so inspired by working with such incredible leaders on a daily basis, they demonstrate the breadth of business talent across the country. These business leaders have shown me their drive, innovation and ambition while also creating long-term value for their communities.”

The full list is winners can be found here.

ABOUT ZILCH

Zilch was born to create the world’s most empowering way to pay for anything, anywhere. We’re on a mission to revolutionise the payment industry with innovative products for customers to manage cash flow, responsibly. 

Zilch merges the best of what people love, desire and trust about debit, credit and savings. 

Since launching in 2020, the consumer-oriented fintech has grown a base of 2.5 million customers in 18 months, scaled double as quickly as some competitors, and become both a double unicorn and the fastest-growing European fintech unicorn in history. At present, 250,000 consumers sign up to use Zilch every month.

As one of the UK’s first payments & BNPL providers to be granted a consumer credit licence by the FCA, Zilch’s transparent and customer-centric credit alternative is designed with regulators to ensure consumer protection and financial health from the start. Utilising sophisticated Open Banking technology and soft credit checks, Zilch uses its real-time view and understanding of customer’s affordability to give accurate recommendations of what they can afford to borrow. Zilch’s direct-to-consumer proposition offers its customers unrestricted access to all 37m merchants that accept Mastercard, online or in-store via Tap and Pay. 

Zilch has over 250 employees based across its offices in London, Miami and Krakow. 

Just Zilch it!

Contacts:

Zilch – Ryan Mendy, Chief Communications Officer

[email protected] 

For any media enquiries please contact:

Hawthorn – 

[email protected]

With just a slide of the new toggle, you can switch your default digital wallet payment option between Pay in 1 (Debit) or Pay in 4 (Credit) without visiting your Zilch app each time. To get you started, we set this to Pay in 1 so that you can get 2% in Zilch Rewards every time you spend. Change this to Pay in 4 any time in Settings.

When you Pay in 4 using your digital wallet there will now be a £2.50 fee for each transaction. Also, the minimum spend for Pay in 4 transactions will now be £10 for all – so anything under £10 will default to Pay in 1 and earn Zilch Rewards.

Remember, you can come to the Zilch app or website before you shop and Pay in 4 at thousands of stores for free.

There are Zero changes to your personalised limit.  Zero changes to the many thousands of eligible stores we add to daily – where you can split your payments for free online – and Zero changes to the amazing Rewards you can earn when you Pay in 1!

Find out more in the video below.