BNPL fintech Billink raises €29.5m to make online purchases fairer

Billink, the Netherlands-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) solution trusted by three million shoppers, has raised €29.5 million from the German Varengold Bank.

The payment provider will use the funding to expand its offering to the top-50 largest Benelux web shops, enter the German market, and further fuel its ambitions to make buying online fairer, for both consumers and web shops, by bringing the same level of assurance consumers have in offline transactions online.

Billink is a payment solution where payment is only made after shoppers receive purchases. Since its first BNPL transaction in 2012, Billink has amassed three million users and over 3,000 web shops now offer its payment service. The scale-up has also gained ground in the business market, where 20% of all companies registered in the Dutch Chamber of Commerce have made at least one payment using the solution.

“We differentiate ourselves by being a ‘local hero’,” said Frank Waagmeester, chief executive officer of Billink. “We have been active in the payment market in the Benelux for over a decade and understand the challenges of our web shop owners. We see this reflected in, among other things, a high customer retention and satisfaction score and a 4.7 Trustpilot rating, the highest in the market. With this great foundation, we are ready to take the next step.”

Now, the Dutch payment service is ready to compete with Sweden’s Klarna and Germany’s Riverty, formerly AfterPay.

Protection through BNPL

After an extensive process – supervised by Philip Niemeyer, executive director A-DCM – a partnership was established with the German Varengold Bank. The funding will enable Billink to start serving the Netherlands’ top-50 online shops and free up working capital to accelerate its expansion into the German market. Billink’s ambition is to become the most reliable online payment method by focusing on innovation and customer satisfaction.

“Offline, a consumer is used to paying only after receiving a service or product. Online, you pay in advance, just assuming that everything goes well and your purchase is to your liking. We think that’s unfair,” Waagmeester explained. “We are now working on Billink Check-out 2.0, which makes the customer experience even more personal and helps web shop owners further optimize conversion. For this we are not only talking to the largest web shops in the Benelux about their challenges and needs, we are also developing our own AI (Artificial Intelligence) application.”