(L-R) BillEase Co-Founders Huyen Nguyen, Georg Steiger, and Ritche Weekun
Filipino buy-now-pay-later and consumer finance app BillEase has closed a US$20 million debt facility from emerging market credit provider Lendable.
The new funding adds to BillEase’s recent US$11 million Series B equity raised from investors, including BurdaPrincipal Investments, MDI Ventures, and KB Investment.
Georg Steiger, CEO and Co-Founder of First Digital Finance Corporation (FDFC), the operator of BillEase, said: “With Lendable’s support, we will be able to continue the strong growth in customer onboarding and expand our loan portfolio. We share the same focus on creating financing solutions that serve the emerging consumer segment as the Lendable team.”
Launched in 2017, BillEase provides merchants with instalment solutions to boost their conversion rate and average order values by enabling customised instalment payment products at checkout.
Today BillEase has more than 700 merchant partners — from airline tickets (Philippine Airlines) to flip flops (Havaianas), speakers (Harman Kardon) to ice boxes (Coleman/Focus Global).
Also Read: This e-credit card allows Filipinos to buy big-ticket items online with easy instalments
For consumers, BillEase serves as an alternative to credit/debit cards and e-wallets when shopping online. They are given a credit limit that can be used at any of BillEase’s merchant partners, such as gadgets retailer Kimstore or Philippine Airlines. Unlike traditional debit cards and e-wallets, customers do not have to top up before purchasing online or offline.
In addition to BNPL, the BillEase app also offers personal loans, e-wallet top-ups and popular wallets like GCash, PayMaya, Coins.ph, GrabPay, and ShopeePay, mobile loads and gaming credits.
BillEase claimed its Q1 2022 volumes were up almost 5x compared to last year’s same period, and the company already achieved profitability in 2021.
The Philippines has recently attracted increased interest from investors, especially in the fintech space, and this is primarily due to the potential impact fintech startups have on the lives of the emerging middle-class population.
“The Philippines represents a huge and untapped opportunity for fintech. The population is young, tech-savvy and largely underbanked. Several regulatory initiatives are coming together to significantly improve market infrastructure – instant retail payment networks, National ID, national credit bureau, digital banking licenses, just to name a few. The adoption of digital transactions also just got a massive push through the extended lockdowns. We are starting to see the shape of things to come but we are barely scratching the surface. This will be one of the most exciting fintech markets globally over the next five years.” Steiger added.
—
Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.
The post Filipino BNPL player BillEase secures US$20M debt facility from Lendable appeared first on e27.