Paidy, a Japanese startup that helps people make online purchases without a credit card, has raised $55 million in a Series C funding round led by Itochu Corporation and joined by Goldman Sachs.
Paidy launched its post-pay credit account for ecommerce in 2014, and now claims more than 1.4 million accounts, bringing online shopping to people who do not have, or do not want to use, credit cards.
Once registered, customers make purchases using a mobile phone number and email address with a four digit SMS or voice verification code, before settling a single monthly bill for all their purchases, either at a convenience store, by bank transfer or auto debit.
The firm says that its proprietary models and machine learning mean that transactions are underwritten in seconds, with guaranteed payment to merchants - increasing their revenues.
With $55 million in its pocket, Paidy is aiming to rack up 11 million accounts by 2020, in part by scoring deals with some large merchants, as well as moving into the offline market and other financial services.
Russell Cummer, executive chairman, Paidy, says: "Through this tie-up, we expect to launch new merchants in order to deliver Paidy’s frictionless and intuitive financial solution to a much broader audience.
"Furthermore, by adding new payment functions and diverse financial services, thereby making our customer attachments much more robust, we aim to promote our vision of removing barriers and creating unique consumer experiences to as many people as possible.”