The Venture Codex

Led · Equity · Mar 2021

Butter is a fintech platform that has established itself as a BNPL travel agency, enabling customers to book travel and defer full payment until after the trip. Its over-the-top (OTT) in-app universal checkout lets customers spread the cost of purchases from any online store without merchants needing to integrate. Customers can repay purchases over two, three, or four monthly payments. Popular retailers available in the app include Amazon, Argos, BooHoo, ASOS, H&M, Zara, Hugo Boss, Sports Direct, Airbnb, Currys PC World, Ao.com and IKEA. Butter achieved full FCA regulated status in 2017 and today has over 100,000 customers. The company plans to use new funding to accelerate the rollout of its open-banking based BNPL shopping app.

Participated · Series A · May 2020

Fly Now Pay Later provides a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform that lets consumers spread the cost of flights, hotels and other travel expenses over time while merchants receive payment upfront. The company integrates with airlines, online travel agencies and other travel merchants, and has struck partnerships with KAYAK, Malaysia Airlines, Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP) for EU merchants, and the BNPL network ChargeAfter. Management is doubling down on expansion in the United States, citing forecasts that domestic U.S. travel spend will reach $968 billion by 2024 and that BNPL will dominate embedded finance by 2026. Despite pandemic-induced headwinds, the firm continued investing in its technology and partnership network to capture recovering travel demand. Financially, Fly Now Pay Later has secured $172.1 million in debt and equity financing since 2015, supporting its growth and product development. The latest funding round strengthens its balance sheet for further U.S. market penetration and continued product enhancements. No revenue, user or profitability figures were disclosed in the article.