Standard Bank floats Float to the tune of over R208-million

Fintech Float has been granted a loan of just more than R208-million by Standard Bank to facilitate the rollout of its card-linked instalment platform and support its accelerated growth plans over the next four years.

Float is a relatively new player in the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) market, having launched about three years ago. 

Its business model allows shoppers to split payments over up to 24 interest-free, fee-free, monthly instalments using the available limit on their existing Visa or Mastercard credit cards. 

Float already works with almost seven million preapproved credit cards in South Africa and there is no sign-up, registration or credit check process for consumers.

The Standard Bank loan has been structured as a revolving credit facility, ensuring long-term security and flexibility of funding for Float.

Float’s chief financial officer, Paul Masson, says that as the company navigates this phase of accelerated growth, the focus remains on maintaining financial discipline and driving sustainable profitability. 

Float founder and chief executive, Alex Forsyth-Thompson, adds that the partnership with Standard Bank is a major milestone for the business and a “huge vote of confidence in our model, its value to the payments ecosystem, and the future prospects of our team and business. 

“The support from Standard Bank comes at a time when we’re approaching an inflection point in our growth and will be pivotal in fueling our business as we scale.”

The funding is indeed a vote of confidence but also a prudent move by Standard Bank as consumers fighting a losing financial battle are increasingly relying on credit and payment options such as BNPL to make ends meet. 

PayJustNow, the BNPL arm of HomeChoice International, doubled its all-digital customer base to 1.3 million in the past year. 

The company generated R1.5-billion in customer trade at merchants’ points of sale, with 75% of this coming from repeat customers who use the BNPL solution an average of 1.7 times every three months.

Since its launch in November 2021, Float has been adopted by hundreds of merchants including household names such as iStore, Samsung, The Pro Shop, CycleLab, Dial-a-Bed and Cape Union Mart.

Forsyth-Thompson says South African credit consumers reward merchants who offer them flexible and responsible payment options with their business and their loyalty.

“Float gives them exactly that, and the result has been a drastic increase in conversion rates and, based on a recent case study across hundreds of our merchants, a 134% increase in our merchants’ average order values. 

“We have new merchants and partnerships in the pipeline and this funding ensures that we can continue to scale for the next few years.” DM