Philippines’ Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform BillEase announced that it has closed its Series B funding round with US$ 11 million in fresh equity.
The round was led by BurdaPrincipal Investments, the growth capital arm of German media and tech company Hubert Burda Media.
Other investors in the round include Centauri, a joint investment vehicle of Telkom Indonesia’s MDI Ventures and KB Investment and backer of Kredivo, 33 Capital from Singapore, and Tamaz Georgadze, CEO and Co-Founder of European fintech unicorn Raisin DS, European marketplace for online deposits and investments.
BillEase said that the fresh funds will be used to further accelerate its customer growth, enhance and develop new products, as well as to attract top talent.
Launched in 2017, BillEase provides merchants with installment solutions to boost their conversion rate and average order values by enabling customised installment payment products at checkout.
For consumers, BillEase serves as an alternative to credit and debit cards as well as e-wallets when shopping online.
In addition to BNPL, the BillEase app, offers a suite of in-app services such as personal loans, top-ups to popular wallets like GCash, PayMaya, Coins.ph, GrabPay, and ShopeePay, mobile loads and gaming credits with future plans to expand its offerings.
BillEase is also committed to the development of the country’s credit system towards greater financial inclusion through its membership with state-owned Credit Information Corporation and private credit bureaus like TransUnion.
“BNPL services often rely on card payments, in the Philippines less than 5% of the adult population owns a credit card and cash on delivery remains the primary mode of payment.
To address this problem and expand the target market, we developed our proprietary credit, fraud, and payment stack. While this requires more upfront investment, we are actually solving a more fundamental problem for customers and allows us to create long-term relationships.”
said Georg Steiger, Co-Founder and CEO of First Digital Finance Corporation (FDFC) which operates BillEase.
