The chief executive of consumer payments platform Zilch has vowed to deliver something “never seen before” to public markets as the fintech IPO landscape gains momentum.
Philip Belamant informed City AM that Klarna’s launch on the New York Stock Exchange – where shares surged 15 per cent – served as a “brilliant” signal for fintech opportunities, as reported by City AM.
“I think if the industry at large is doing better, everyone’s doing better,” he added.
Zilch has emerged as a leading IPO contender for the City following Belamant’s remarks at an Innovate Finance conference 12 months ago, where he described a London listing as “fantastic” and “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 boss remained coy about immediate flotation plans but praised the recent wave of IPOs on the London Stock Exchange.
This development coincides with the London-based company strengthening its product range through the introduction of its one-click checkout service ‘Zilch Pay,’ alongside a fresh AI-driven data platform for retailers.
Belamant noted that whilst certain neobanks struggled with financial robustness, proving “slow or quite bad” at lending despite “typically having good tech,” Zilch was accelerating across its capabilities to broaden its offerings.
“With Zilch, the bedrock of our business is lending.”
Belamant stated: “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 latest venture, Intelligent Commerce, utilises high-frequency customer spending data to enable retailers to automatically target customers with personalised offers. The aim is to deliver a significant increase in return on ad spend.
Intelligent Commerce will scrutinise spending data to comprehend customers’ entire shopping habits and allow retailers to identify exactly which ads lead to a purchase.
The platform will employ AI to automatically target customers with personalised ads and offers, aiming to “dramatically” boost the revenue retailers gain 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 broadening its offerings, Belamant confirmed there were no plans to follow the trend of some fintech rivals and pivot into the digital banking sector.
“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 AM disclosed that Zilch had secured a £30m debt financing facility with New York-based US Bank.
This represents the most significant merger for the fintech since its £150m agreement with Deutsche Bank last year.
The conditions of the loan were not revealed, and Zilch chose not to comment.
The company increased provisions for credit losses – reserves allocated to cover anticipated losses from non-repayment – to £27.4m, a 116 per cent increase from £12.7m in the previous year.
