Buy Now, Pay Later payment solution ‘ePayLater’, has closed its Pre-Series A funding round which was led by ICICI Bank, the second largest private bank in India. The round also saw participation from GMO Global Fintech Fund, the investment fund of the internet conglomerate in Japan along with family offices like Parekh and Patni and foreign investors from the UK.
With this capital infusion, ePayLater is better poised to ramp up its technology architecture as well as strengthen its product. The company had earlier raised $2 million during its angel round of funding.
ePayLater offers interest-free credit terms for a 14-day period through its unique ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ facility. Customers can access ePayLater at merchants where ePayLater is integrated directly and also at merchants (both online and offline) through its UPI product. Access to the credit facility using UPI is available on a select set of merchants at the initial stage and is being ramped up slowly.
“ePayLater continues to push the boundaries of innovation to bridge the credit divide in the country. Credit at the point of sale is a need of millions of customers across the country and ePayLater is working towards providing convenient digital solutions for the same. We are indeed delighted that this esteemed group of investors has shown faith in our business model and have invested in our platform so that we can scale faster and fulfill our vision with greater agility,” the co-founders of ePayLater said in a statement.
The platform uses advanced machine learning techniques to do a real-time credit assessment using data such as buying patterns, digital footprints, social media information, and device information. The user is then provided with a credit limit, and can actively use this credit amount to pay for products and services online.
ePayLater has tie-ups with prominent merchants/marketplaces that allow customers to use this facility, including IRCTC, Oxigen, PVR, Croma etc. Continuous innovation has made it possible to increase the reach across large number offline merchants as well which accounts for about 97% of all P2M payments today.