BNPL Firm Paidy Notches $120 Million In Series D Funding Round

Japanese buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Paidy Inc. announced Tuesday (March 30) it had completed its Series D funding round, raising $120 million.

This increase in capital, from sources that included JS Capital Management LLC, Soros Capital Management LLC, Tybourne Capital Management Ltd and Wellington Management, along with debt financing, brings the total capital raised since Paidy’s founding to $585 million, the company said.

“Having the support of a powerful lineup including our existing shareholder JS Capital and Soros Capital of the United States and Tybourne of Hong Kong, and Wellington Management, makes me feel very encouraged about the future growth potential of a born-in-Japan startup that offers new values to the world,” Paidy Founder and Executive Chairman Russell Cummer said in the announcement. “We intend to continue expanding our horizons and raising our sights.”

Paidy said this is one of the largest amounts of funding ever raised by a Japanese startup. The company launched in 2014, allowing customers to make purchases with just an email address and mobile phone number, paying the accumulated charges the next month.

The company has more than 5 million customers in Japan and is accepted by more than 700,000 websites.

Last year, Paidy launched Paidy 3-Pay, an interest-free payment method that lets users split the cost of a purchase into three equal payments. This service was developed based on feedback from Paidy customers.

“I think we see use cases that make a ton of sense,” Cummers told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in a December interview. “We have the big electronics retailers as our partners so that use case of people buying $400 and $500 items and splitting them over three months makes a ton of sense. But we’re also seeing a use case that I think is more in line with some of the other [buy now pay later] BNPL companies in the $50 to $200 range for fashion and beauty items.”