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24
companies & people
Innovators’
Spotlight
By Adam Perrotta, Assistant Editor
While no one can claim to know exactly what the future of payments will look like, odds are it’ll be a pretty exciting place. It’s also a good bet that the following companies will play key roles in shaping that future. One operates a prepaid issuing business with a dominant market share, another is bringing consumer credit into the digital age and the third invented the technology many think will breathe new life into NFC. By carving out positions in the growth markets of today, these firms likely have secured even bigger stakes in the payments landscape of tomorrow.
These profiles are summaries of larger articles you can read in full on Paybefore.com.
Pay4Later
London-based consumer financing provider Pay- 4Later this year added its 1,000th U.K. merchant partner and passed half a million customer applica- tions since 2008. Those achievements—along with
a 300 percent revenue increase in 2013—helped the company land a Series A investment from venture capital firm Mission OG to fund further growth. Since June, Pay4Later kept its foot on the accelerator, adding Oakbrook Finance and P2P lending specialist RateSetter to its credit financing partners.
Pay4Later’s In-store Calculator enables customers to choose from among up to four different financing options.
no additional hardware, Pay4Later enables merchants to offer credit financing in-store, on a Website or via email. Customers get an instant decision and can sign their agreement on-screen.
For merchant partners, offering financing and credit promotions through Pay4Later can boost overall sales volume up to 40 percent and increase average order values up to threefold, the company says. A range of financing options and terms give merchants flexibility as to what types of financing to offer a particular customer, while the CreditSentry tool provides risk management and identity verification. And last Octo- ber, the company launched the latest version of its In-store Finance Calculator, a tablet-based app that enables customers to see different financing options and fine-tune monthly payments.
Providing simple consumer financing solutions for the digital age has proven to be a winning formula. As the company’s recent growth and achievement make clear, Pay4Later is serving an unmet marketplace need.
U.K. firm finds success by bringing merchant financing into the digital age.
Pay4Later’s success can be attributed to
its goal of reinventing POS retail financing for the digital age, simpli- fying the process for retailers and custom- ers. Built around a paperless e-signature process that requires