Payment Network Zilch Aims to Triple Sales After Raising $127 Million

British payments FinTech Zilch has raised $127 million in debt financing via Deutsche Bank.

The funding will help the company accelerate its ability to launch new products for a wider customer base as it prepares to go public, Zilch announced Wednesday (June 19).

“With this new securitization, we’re poised to triple sales volumes and achieve significant capital efficiencies as we continue to drive billions in commerce to our retail network and, in turn, hundreds of millions in savings and subsidies to our customer base,” CEO and co-founder Philip Belamant said in a news release.

Hugh Courtney, Zilch’s chief financial officer, added that the financing “sets an initial benchmark for us to price our debt issuance in the future, allowing us to competitively match the pricing and terms as the business continues to develop,” and “represents a major milestone as we work towards an IPO in the future.”

Belamant had said in March that Zilch was planning an initial public offering (IPO) for next year. No venue had been chosen at the time, though Zilch had reportedly had discussions with the New York and London exchanges.

Zilch, which bills itself as “world’s first direct-to-consumer, ad-subsidized payments network,” lets customers purchase products and pay off their debt in monthly, interest-free installments.

The company’s new funding and IPO plans come as consumers continue to embrace buy now, pay later (BNPL) programs. In many cases, they’re using BNPL to pay for groceries amid ongoing budgetary pressures.

“Consumers who use BNPL get the benefit of spreading grocery payments over three or four installments over a similar four- to six-week period,” PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote earlier this year. “Getting the use of the BNPL provider’s money, for free, over that period is enough of a reward for many consumers, especially when everyone across every income level feels the persistent pinch of food inflation.”

PYMNTS Intelligence research from the study “Installment Plans Becoming a Key Part of Shopper’s Toolkit” shows that many consumers want to be able to pay for their grocery purchases in installments.

According to that report, among the 60% of consumers who had used some type of installment payment plan in the previous 12 months, 34% had done so to purchase groceries. In addition, younger consumers showed greater demand for installment plan options for groceries, as that share rose to 45% for Generation Z.