Payl8r and the due diligence dilemma

Lack of funding is the cause for 16% of all startup failures (via failory.com), yet many startup founders still neglect to do their due diligence when seeking funding from investors. Due diligence is crucial to a startup’s growth as it can vastly increase your chances of securing investments by making your business look more attractive to investors such as VCs or Angels. Take, for example, Payl8r, a ‘buy now, pay later’ alternative to credit cards that has just announced it is set to become a £1bn fintech business after a year and a half of due diligence.

What is Payl8r?

Based in Altrincham, Manchester, chief executive Louis Alexander, managing director Samantha Palmer, and finance director Tim Slinger created this modern method of payment in 2016 with young, British consumers in mind. And now, Payl8r is considered a major rival to finance’s famous Swedish player Klarna and has become one of the most well-known success stories in the UK’s fintech business industry.

Like the Swedish company competitor, both fintech companies are popular alternatives to credit cards. Payl8r provides a range of funding options targeting 18–24 year olds. As a responsible payments company, Payl8r offers a range of financing options, such as weekly payments, that all depend on the user’s credit history. For example, if a person has a weak credit score, the amount they can borrow and the length of time they are offered in which to pay it back will be affected. Applicants may even be rejected due to a bad credit rating.

The interest-free, buy-now-pay-later alternative to credit cards is now available in a variety of sectors, such as Payl8r Beauty, Payl8r Fashion, Payl8r Retail, and Payl8r Travel.

How successful is Payl8r?

This fintech darling just keeps going from strength to strength and has expanded at a gargantuan momentum since its creation in 2016. Payl8r boasts over 1,000 retail partners, which include a wide range of lifestyle brands, and accepts five times more customers than their rival players (via payl8r.com). The millennial finance firm has tripled its lending and had a 334% growth increase since 2020, and since 2016 they have doubled their workforce each year (via uktech.news). They have also just secured a new office space and their very own in-house creative team.

Whilst Buy Now, Pay Later grows 39% in the UK every year (via Worldpay.com), Payl8r received the fantastic news that they have just secured £40 million from Conister Bank. This places the finance company firmly as competitors on the billion-pound industry’s playing ground, alongside other startup companies such as London-based Zilch.

How Payl8r performed due diligence to secure investment

In order to secure this massive funding, the fintech company had to undertake 18 months of due diligence as part of their funding initiative. This involved meticulous analysis and scrutiny of their company over a very long period of time, making their company appear responsible and inciting potential investors, thus increasing their chances of securing investment funding. And ultimately taking the time to do their due diligence was what scored Payl8r their multi-million-pound investment from Conister Bank.

Speaking on this, University of Manchester graduate and managing director Samantha Palmer said:

And the effort was certainly worth it: thanks to their hard work during the 18-month due diligence process, this fresh raise has put Payl8r on track for a £1 billion revenue within five years.

Performing due diligence to secure investment for your startup

So, if you have ambitious plans for your startup and are also looking to seek capital from investors like VCs and Angels, then you should take the time to perform a thorough due diligence just like Payl8r did. Help and guidance to do this can be sought from a due diligence consulting company, startup advisors, or startup consultants,, such as our startup experts at 7startup. We personalise our equity funding service to your business to help you design a due diligence report backed by science and data.

This story was originally published on 7startup.vc