South African fintech startup Happy Pay has secured $1.8 million in pre-seed funding to boost growth and expand its Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) offerings. The funding round, led by E4E Africa and 4D Capital, included several other investors like Equitable Ventures, Felix Strategic Investment, Gaingels and DotExe Ventures, and local angel investors.
Happy Pay’s forward-compliant BNPL platform provides clients with a seamless one-click checkout solution that allows users to split their purchases over two paychecks, interest, and deposit-free. The platform strives to meet dynamic regulatory standards while leveraging AI-driven credit scoring to ensure customers and merchants have a seamless checkout experience.
The 2023-founded Happy Pay has witnessed significant growth over the last year increasing its user base by over 900%. Reports say Millennials and Gen Zs, who prefer BNPL options to traditional credit cards, are the platform’s largest growth drivers. The younger adult population prefers more transparent and convenient short-term debt, which the BNPL model provides.
Wesley Billett, Co-Founder and CEO at Happy Pay, says the funding will “enable us to accelerate our growth and expand our innovative product offerings, ultimately providing more value to the customers and merchants that we serve.” Happy Pay will launch several innovative products, increase its customer base, and ramp up marketing efforts, using the pre-seed funding. The company also plans to add to its team as it anticipates efficient growth.
Speaking on their contribution to the pre-seed funding round, E4E Africa’s partner, Bas Hochstenbach, says the company believes “that Happy Pay’s innovative approach to financial inclusion via their BNPL-led customer payments platform can bring more South African consumers into the formal financial ecosystem and create access to more equitable finance options for them.”
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