BillEase PHL has raised 20 million to expand the BNPL service

BILLEASE has secured $ 20 million through a fundraising round to expand its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform in the Philippines.

The loan facility was approved by UK-headquartered Lendable, an emerging market credit facility.

“This facility is another legitimacy of our business and the platform that our team has built over the years and helps BillEase to firmly position itself as a BNPL brand in the Philippines,” said Georg Steiger, chief executive officer and co-founder of First Digital Finance Corporation. FDFC), which operates the Belize app, said in a statement.

“We share the same focus on creating financing solutions that serve the emerging consumer segment as a transactional team and we look forward to working with them for further financial inclusion in the Philippines,” Mr Steiger added.

The latest funding round results in B 11 million raised through Series B equity in January, with investor participants including BurdaPrincipal Investments, MDI Ventures, and KB Investment among others.

This brings the company’s total fresh funds to 31 million.

“Belize has grown exponentially as a business and we look forward to continuing to support its growth trajectory by providing sustainable and better access to financial products,” said Hani Ibrahim, Lendable’s chief investment officer.

Mr Steiger said the volume of transactions on the bill increased nearly five-fold in the first three months of 2021 from a year earlier.

Belize also gained last year, he added.

The company offers a one-stop platform that offers BNPL, installment schemes, low cost loans and e-wallet top-up services. It also provides retailers with payment solutions to attract and retain customers.

Mr Steiger is excited about the potential for fintech services in the Philippines in a regulatory reform to help the population gain faster digital transactions and more Filipinos gain access to financial services during the lockdown.

“The population is young, technologically savvy and largely underbanked. A number of regulatory initiatives are being put together to significantly improve the market infrastructure – instant retail payment networks, national IDs, national credit bureaus, digital banking licenses, just to name a few, “Mr Steiger said.

The central bank wants to make 50% of all payments online by 2023. Loose Wendy T. Nobel