Toronto-based FinTech company PayBright has raised $34 million in growth equity from alternative financing provider goeasy Ltd.
PayBright is lending and payments startup that offers instant point-of-sale financing and installment payment plans for consumers and merchants. Its platform is focused on providing consumers with pay-later solutions at online and brick-and-mortar retailers.
“This minority investment by goeasy provides us with additional growth capital to build our merchant and consumer network.”
The $34 million investment from goeasy follows a late 2018 round of financing led by the Canadian Business Growth Fund, with participation from PayBright’s existing investors, including iA Financial Group. Combined, the two equity rounds total to $60 million. Paybright plans to use the financing to accelerate the expansion of its buy now, pay later solution for ecommerce and in-store purchases.
“This minority investment by goeasy provides us with additional growth capital to build our merchant and consumer network and to further invest in our technology platform and user experience,” said Wayne Pommen, president and CEO of PayBright. “We are pleased to have goeasy join the high-quality investor group that has supported our rapid growth in Canada over the past few years.”
PayBright, which recently made the Digital Finance Institute’s list of Canada’s Top 50 Fintech Companies, partners with retailers, allowing them to offer a fully integrated instant point-of-sale installment payment plan to consumers. Consumers can select PayBright as a payment method, which finalizes their purchases in a matter of seconds, while retailers receive their funds directly from PayBright the next business day. Consumers then pay for their purchases in installments over time. The installment plans range from four bi-weekly payments for smaller purchases up to 60 months for larger purchases. PayBright noted that the payment method comes with no credit or fraud risk.
“Unlike other financing options, PayBright does not require consumers to sign up for a credit card and does not charge revolving interest, hidden fees, or retroactive interest,” the company stated.
Founded in 2009, PayBright has partnered with over 4,700 merchants across 10 Canadian provinces, and has approved over $1 billion in consumer credit for more than 250,000 customers.
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As part of the investment, goeasy will acquire a minority equity stake in PayBright for an aggregate price of $34.3 million. goeasy stated that it will also receive customary shareholder rights as a significant strategic minority investor, including a seat on PayBright’s advisory board.
goeasy’s investment also marks a strategic partnership between the two companies, which will see PayBright integrate goeasy into its platform, in order to “maximize approvals for shoppers.” goeasy is one of Canada’s leading providers of financial services for non-prime consumers, which are consumers with limited or bad credit history, as well as variable or difficult to document income. Through the partnership goeasy’s consumer lending division, easyfinancial, will become the primary provider of non-prime financing within PayBright’s point-of-sale payments platform.
“After a thorough review of the market, PayBright was an obvious partner,” explained Jason Mullins, goeasy’s president and CEO. “They have built an industry-leading platform, including the first integrated payment solution for ecommerce sales in Canada, and have been providing financing to customers of major brands such as Wayfair, Samsung, Casper, Endy, Peloton, Lenovo, Steve Madden, eBay, and more.”
“Our strategic partnership and investment in PayBright will help accelerate their growth and allow us to play an active role in the rapidly growing point-of-sale installment payments market, while leveraging their capabilities in this important distribution channel,” he added.
Earlier this year, PayBright announced that it had entered into a partnership with eBay Canada allowing for the “first-ever” installment payment offering for Canadian eBay customers. PayBright also partners with a number of merchants, as well as POS providers, including Lightspeed.
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