Divido, the consumer finance platform, scores $15M Series A

Divido, the consumer finance platform that lets you take out credit at the point of purchase to help spread the cost of buying new things, has raised $15 million in Series A funding.

Leading the round is Dawn Capital, and DN Capital, with participation from Mastercard, American Express Ventures and a number of previous investors. Renier Lemmens, who previously served as Chief Executive Officer of PayPal EMEA and was an executive at Barclays, has also been appointed as chairman.

Launched in late 2015, London-based Divido currently works with over 1,000 partners to enable them to offer B2C and B2B finance to their customers at checkout. This includes being able to spread the cost of any product or service over a period of time by providing instant access to credit at the point of purchase, either online and in-store.

However, where the company differentiates from the likes of Klarna is that Divido doesn’t provide the line of credit itself or work with a single lender, instead operating a marketplace model. This sees lenders compete to offer the most suitable credit.

The broader pitch is that Divido’s consumer finance at the point of sale leads to up to 20 percent more sales for retailers, more lending for banks and more transactions for payment partners. The company’s clients include Mercedes-Benz, BNP Paribas Shopify.

Explains Christer Holloman, CEO of Divido, in a statement: “Proactive retailers know they have to try new initiatives to grow sales. Offering customers the option to pay later doesn’t just increase footfall and eyeballs, but it also raises average order values and conversion rates. And what’s good for the retailers is also good for the lenders who are providing this credit, and the intermediaries that facilitate the transactions”.

Meanwhile, Divido says the injection of capital will be used for global expansion. The platform is currently available in the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Nordics, and the U.S., and the company wants to be in 10 more countries by the end of 2019. Divido is also pivoting to licence its platform to banks and lenders via a service called “Powered by Divido”. This will let partners white label its technology to provide finance services to their customers.