Paidy, a Japanese fintech startup that provides instant credit to consumers, has raised $143 million in funding from investors.
Japanese consumer instant credit provider Paidy has announced that it raised $143 million in investment capital from institutional investors. The new financing round includes $83 million series C financing extension and debt financing of $60 million. The series C funding included participants such as PayPal Ventures, the Famed Soros Capital Ventures, JS Capital Management and Tybourne Capital Management and an unnamed investor.
The financial institutions that initiated the debt financing include Goldman Sachs Japan, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. The amounts raised will enable Paidy to achieve its goals of diversifying its services and increasing its clientele size to 11 million towards the end of next year.
Sources indicate that the startup also established a warehouse facility in partnership with Goldman Sachs and the warehouse is worth $52 million in valuation. Paidy also was able to obtain a credit line of $8 Million from a trio of unnamed banks as well.
So far, the consumer credit startup has been able to raise $163 million from investors. Insider sources indicate that the round C funding was extended to preserve the equity ratio of the current investors and also to enable preferred shares to be issued to existing investors.
Paidy’s product enables those without bank accounts or credit cards to be able to make payments via their mobile phones using SMS or voice calls for transaction authentication. Paidy acts as a stand-in and has its own inbuilt credit scoring system which evaluates models based on several factors.
As a fintech startup, Paidy has also been able to reduce inefficiencies in the credit system such as incomplete transactions and wrong consumer choices as well.
This also has solved a basic problem that exists within the Japanese retail system. Most Japanese love to shop online. The problem, however, is that they don’t use credit cards and prefer instead to pay on delivery or to pick up their goods at premium locations. This has been known to cause the twin problems of incomplete transactions and incomplete deliveries as well.
Paidy solves this problem by being the go-between all parties keeping both shoppers happy and the merchants happy too. This leads to better business for the merchants and a great experience for the shopper. Repeat purchases go up, orders rise, conversion rates also increase in the upward direction.
This indicates that in Asia alongside China, the Japanese seem to be making headway in the fintech industry. From blockchain technology to credit and other solutions that require the creativity and innovation that only a few can muster, Asian startups are also making their own contributions which are changing the way people do business and live.
As for the risks and success of Paidy’s business model, only time shall tell if their venture is a foolhardy one or an excellent success as well.
