Dutch Fintech in3 raises $85.3 million series B round and announces partnership with Mollie
in3, a Dutch 'Buy-Now-Pay-Later' (BNPL) fintech has today announced a $85.3m Series B funding round from the British VC Force over Mass, U.S. institutional asset manager Waterfall Asset Management LLC and Dutch investor Finch Capital.
Launched in 2018, in3 gives consumers the option to pay in 3 instalments without interest or other hidden costs. Current customers include Kwik Fit, EP, La Souris, Matt sleeps, Dekbed-Discounter among others. Today’s news follows their $11.1m series A round just two months ago in March 2022 and takes the total funding raised to $96.4m.
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is an increasingly popular form of short-term financing. Market intelligence platform CB Insights reports that the BNPL market will grow by 10 to 15 times its current volume globally to over $1 trillion in annual gross trading volume by 2025.
Hans Langenhuizen, CEO of in3 commented: “We’re thrilled to have secured this funding round. It is testament to the scale and growth of our proposition in the BNPL community. We will be expanding further in the Netherlands through the partnership with Mollie and plan to launch in Germany soon. Over the past year, we have invested in our tech stack and team to prepare for the next phase of the business. The new funds will help us process transactions on a larger scale, both online and in the physical stores. We’re grateful to all our investors as we enter our growth phase.”
in3 has today confirmed a nationwide partnership with Mollie, one of the largest providers of online payment services in the Netherlands to online and physical stores. in3 will now be offered to millions of consumers via almost every payment service provider in the Netherlands. Mollie supports more than 130,000 merchants in selling and growing their business online with a simple and clear payment API and a checkout that is optimized for conversion.
"Consumers don't always have the financial means to buy what they need at that moment. By giving more flexibility with BNPL, the conversion and average order value can be increased," said Ken Serdons, Chief Commercial Officer of Mollie. "We are excited to partner with in3 to offer an alternative, interest-free BNPL payment method, where payment to our merchants is guaranteed. In addition, in3 also attaches great importance to the importance of localization by offering iDEAL, which is an important core value of Mollie. We look forward to exploring similar opportunities in Germany and other European countries together with in3."
On the partnership with Mollie, Hans Langenhuizen added: “This partnership presents a significant growth opportunity for us to expand our offer and help more consumers across the country and region in time. Mollie accounts for a large share of the online payment traffic in the Netherlands. I am sure this collaboration will be a success for both parties. We already have healthy partnerships with various payment service providers, including Worldline, making it very easy for merchants to offer our product. An important part of the landscape that we were missing was Mollie.”
Changing the BNPL landscape in a socially responsible way
Unlike other BNPL payment methods, in3 chooses not to earn money from the consumer. Hans Langenhuizen said: “The BNPL market is growing rapidly but we are mindful of protecting consumers against over-credit. This starts when placing an order where we perform an advanced check within a second.”
The payment option provides for a payment in instalments. With in3 the consumer pays no interest where other BNPL payment methods charge 10% to 14%.
Hans Langenhuizen continued: “The revenue of many BNPL payment methods is built on fines and consumers suffer from this. We have a reversed business model and we benefit when the consumer pays on time. We are the first BNPL party at European level to have set up the business model in this way and we believe that this is of decisive importance to be successful. With this positioning in the market, we are a disrupter with the aim of changing the entire ecosystem for the benefit of the consumer.
The BNPL payment in the Netherlands is expected to grow by 74.8% in 2022 reaching $7.6b. This growth has been spurred on businesses moving online and by the growth of ecommerce, more generally. The pandemic certainly helped propel the move to online. Looking ahead, the BNPL payment adoption is expected to grow steadily at a CAGR of 32.8% over the next 6 years. The BNPL Gross Merchandise Value in the country will increase from $4.3b in 2021 to reach $41.7b million in 2028.
