Zilch eyes ‘hot’ fintech IPO market amid product launch
The boss of consumer payments platform Zilch has pledged to bring something “never seen before” to public markets as the fintech IPO scene heats up.
Philip Belamant told City PM Klarna’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange – where the stock popped 15 per cent – was a “brilliant” indicator for fintech prospects.
“I think if the industry at large is doing better, everyone’s doing better,” he added.
Zilch has been eyed as a top IPO candidate for the City after Belamant told an Innovate Finance conference 12 months ago that it would be “fantastic” to list in the City and that it was “the right thing”.
“We are excited that the fintech market seems to be heating up,” Belamant said.
“The public market wants to see more of these companies and we think we can bring them something they’ve never quite seen before.”
The fintech chief was tight-lipped on imminent listing plans but welcomed the recent flurry of IPOs on the London Stock Exchange.
It comes as the London-headquartered firm bulks up its product portfolio with the launch of its one-click checkout service ‘Zilch Pay,’ along with a new AI-powered data platform for retailers.
Belamant said whilst some neobanks lacked financial strength, being “slow or quite bad” on lending despite “typically having good tech,” Zilch was racing across its arsenal to expand its services.
“With Zilch, the bedrock of our business is lending.”
Belamant added: “So we’re great at the ‘fin’ side…but the tech is also just evolving so rapidly”.
Zilch bets on AI with new launch
Zilch’s new Intelligent Commerce uses high-frequency customer spending data to enable retailers to automatically target customers with personalised offers, aiming to deliver a verified and “dramatic” increase in return on ad spend.
The new Intelligent Commerce will analyse spending data to understand customers’ entire shopping habits and allow retailers to view exactly which ads lead to a purchase.
The platform will use AI to automatically target customers with personalized ads and offers, aiming to “dramatically” increase how much money retailers make from ad spend.
“Finance companies are really renting the audience of the merchant – they are basically saying to that merchant: ‘can I be on your checkout page so you give me access to your audience?’” Belamant said.
Despite expanding its range, Belamant said there were no plans to follow suit with some of its fintech rivals and pivot into the digital banking space.
“We’re a bit confused by some of these other companies’ messaging.
“We don’t understand exactly what they are or what they think they are, you know – but again, we’re not in those companies for us, you know, we really are a consumer payments platform.”
Last month, City PM revealed Zilch had landed a £30m debt financing facility with New York-based US Bank.
It marked the largest tie-up for the fintech since its £150m deal with Deutsche Bank last year.
The terms of the loan were not disclosed. Zilch declined to comment.
The firm raised provisions for credit losses – funds set aside to cover estimated losses from failed repayments – to £27.4m – a 116 per cent jump from £12.7m the year prior.