Pace acquires Polaris-backed buy-now-pay-later pioneer Rely

Singapore-headquartered buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) company Pace Enterprise has acquired the assets of Rely, the oldest local player in the vertical, for an undisclosed sum.

As per a statement, the acquisition will enable consumers to use Pace’s alternative payment solutions across a wider network of brands in Singapore and Malaysia. The Rely team will be working with all existing merchants to transition them to Pace’s merchant platforms.

As part of this deal, all Rely employees will take on new roles at Pace aligned to their previous capacities.

Founded in 2017 by Hizam Ismail (CEO), Mohamed Abbas (CRO) and Prakash Raja (CTO), Rely is the first company to offer BNPL payment solutions in Singapore. The company has since scaled its operations regionally and partnered with leading retailers, including Qoo10 Singapore, ZALORA, JD Sports and SK Jewellery Group, among other brands.

In December 2020, Rely secured US$74.8 million credit facility from Polaris, the strategic partnerships arm of Singapore-based Goldbell Financial Services.

Also Read: Debunking BNPL myths: Is it going to be the primary mode of payment?

“With a shared purpose in democratising financial services across the region, we look forward to delivering more compelling offerings that cater to our customers’ financial needs,” said Turochas “T” Fuad, Pace’s Founder CEO.

Founded by Fuad, Pace aims to build a banking engine that can operate across countries to help merchants create sales efficiencies and provide consumers with an option to spend sustainably. Its BNPL solution for offline and online merchants matches customers with appropriate spend limits and allows them to split their purchases over three interest-free payments.

Pace operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Japan. It has built over 5,000 points of sale across Asia and is on track to meet its goal of one million users by the end of 2022.

The startup also aims to have an annualised GMV of US$1 billion by the end-2022.

In June 2021, Pace secured an ‘eight-figure USD’ debt financing round led by Genesis Alternative Ventures. This followed a “seven-figure seed funding” round co-led by Vertex Ventures and Alpha JWC at the time of its official launch in January.

Fuad is a well-known face in Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem, who previously launched and sold three startups. His first startup was WUF Networks, an Internet of things software company based out of Silicon Valley. The company was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005.

Fuad was also CEO and founder of travelmob, an online marketplace for vacation rentals. Headquartered in Singapore, travelmob was acquired by HomeAway (now part of Expedia) in mid-2013.

In 2016, the serial entrepreneur established and ran Spacemob. He was appointed as Managing Director of WeWork Southeast Asia and Korea after the Spacemob acquisition.

The BNPL market is booming in Southeast Asia. Digital lending, including BNPL, is expected to hit US$92 billion in transactions in 2025 in the region, up from US$23 billion in 2020, says a Forbes report quoting a Google, Temasek and Bain study released last year.
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