Zilch opened in beta in 2019, looking to distinguish itself in the crowded BNPL arena by connecting directly with customers and using soft background credit checks performed by Credit Kudos via Open Banking to determine affordability.

The startup has since grown its London headcount to 150 to meet searing demand among consumers, recording 150,000 new sign-ups a month.

With competition in the UK BNPL sector becoming ever more heated, Zilch has set its sights on international expansion to US markets and pledged to hire a further 100 staff this year to meet growth goals.

The acquisition of NepFin follows Zilch’s recent Series B extension which raised an additional $110M, bringing its total funding to more than $200M, will help secure key licensing and regulatory capabilities, as well as expand its on the ground team in the US.

NepFin's Albert Periu will take over the reins as US CEO and Thomas Meister joins as COO & general counsel. Prior to NepFin, both Periu and Meister worked at P2P lender Funding Circle.

“We’ve been exploring growth options in the U.S. for some time and following the additional funding, now was the perfect time to take another meaningful step towards our U.S. launch,” says Philip Belamant, CEO and founder of Zilch. “Albert, Tom and their team have done tremendous work and adding them to our team enables us to hit the ground running with regulation top of mind. We’re highly confident that the team will mirror and build upon the success of Zilch as we bring the most scalable BNPL product to the US market.”