Japan’s Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) startup Paidy announced on April 9, 2020, that it has shut a Series C extension funding round led by preceding investor ITOCHU Corporation by bringing in US$ 48 Million.

ITOCHU previously participated in Paidy’s Series B round in 2016 and its Series C round in July 2018, bringing the total investment in the startup to US$ 91 million. Apart from ITOCHU, the start-up has also obtained investments from Goldman Sachs, PayPal and others.
“We are extremely fortunate that ITOCHU, our lead investor has seen a great potential in Paidy, platform as a service, which takes the hassle out of payment and purchase experiences. Payment business and e-commerce will continue to face various challenges considering the changing economic environment in Japan and globally, as well as other factors, such as unauthorized use. We are very honored to have received further support from ITOCHU Corporation with this most recent investment,” said Russell Cummer. He further added “We will continue to provide meaningful services by extending trust to people, and ultimately empowering them.”
Up until now, Paidy has scored a total of US$ 281 Million in debt and equity, probably the biggest amount brought up in Japan’s FinTech segment. The company expressed to deploy the new funds to further grow the business and improve its balance sheet status.

Founded by Russell Cummer and Lee Smith in the year 2008, the company provides platform as a service to consumers to pay at online stores revealing only basic information such as name and email address. It also allows consumers to buy online without requiring credit card for pre-registration. The platform is optimized for mobile and instant checkout.

Paidy’s payment services also allows users to pay the bill in installments for their online purchase. It uses appropriate technology to underwrite transaction, score creditworthiness and guarantee payments to merchants. Since many Japanese consumers prefer online payments without using credit card, Paidy’s services could help merchants and vendors to increase their average order value, conversion rate and repeat purchase.

The founders said they are striving to overhaul the service industry as well as Japan’s economy and planning to add cross-section of even bigger merchants with flexible payment options both offline and online.

Paidy began working with Amazon in November, and stated that it wants to “make a meaningful contribution to offer superior customer convenience on Amazon.”

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