FinTech company that helps consumers spread the cost of their travel over a flexible duration Fly Now Pay Later raised a further £10m in Series A funding, bringing its total to £45m.
The round was co-led by asset management firms Revenio Capital and Taurus Wealth Advisors. In total, the travel startup has raised around £85m funding so far.
The London-based company will use the funding to refuel and kickstart the travel industry after the travel industry experiencing the worst downturn in recorded history due to the ongoing pandemic. The new cash injection is also expected to be used to propel its UK, US and German expansion goals.
The FCA-regulated company has already been beta testing its payments technology within the US for the past six months. Furthermore, the firm’s expansion plans are timely as leisure domestic travel in the US has been less impacted than Europe with continued interstate flights operating at around 75% of pre-pandemic levels, it said.
Founded by CEO Jasper Dykes in 2014 Fly Now Pay Later works with travel companies to offer finance from as little as 0% APR to holidaymakers so they can book flights, hotels, package holidays, car hires among other services and can make repayments in affordable scheduled instalments. It also has its own direct-to-consumer offer through the Anywhere app.
Its merchant partnerships range from SME travel operators to established operators like Malaysian Airlines, Lastminute.com and TravelUp.
Despite significant travel disruption in the last 12 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Fly Now Pay Later has continued to invest in and develop its technology and user experience. It entered into significant new commercial partnerships including Kayak and the airline payments network Universal Air Travel Plan.
Commenting on the announcement, Dykes said, “The last 12 months have been an unprecedented period for the commercial travel sector with the worst slow down ever recorded in history. And while we’re not out of the woods, there are glimmers of hope.
“After more than a year of being in our homes, people are itching to dust off their suitcases globally. The recovery of travel is likely to be gradual, but when it happens, we hope that by giving people the freedom to book a trip and pay at a pace that works for them, will help spur reservations.”
Dykes added that the firm is driven to remove financial challenges when it comes to travel by making it “providing payment flexibility at the click of a button.
“Our proprietary platform has been designed to make instantaneous credit decisions – providing highly tailored and digestible payment options to consumers traditionally underserved by existing credit institutions,” he detailed.
Looking ahead, Fly Now Pay Later is aiming to create over $1bn of enterprise value within the next 18 months, driven by its integrated solution and the rapidly expanding Buy Now Pay Later sector.
Indeed, companies in the BNPL sector such as Klarna, Zilch, Butter have been scoring millions in funding with Klarna becoming the highest-valued private FinTech in Europe at a valuation of $31bn.
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