[Funding alert] Simpl raises $40 M in Series B; will use funds to scale and hire, says founder

Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) fintech startup Simpl has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Valar Ventures and IA Ventures, as well as existing investors.

The startup expects to use funds from the latest round to hire talent including engineers, as well as fuel the launch of its new products and features, founder Nitya Sharma told YourStory.

The new products and features include a fraud detection platform for merchants, and a loyalty programme that merchants can extend to their regular customers, Nitya said. He added that Simpl is also launching a product called "Pay-in-3" for millennials that will allow them to split their bills over three equal payments every month.

Part of the funding will also be used to expand its business and onboard new merchants to its system, the startup founder added.

Founded in 2016 by Nitya and Chaitra Chidanand, Simpl is essentially a 'khata' for online commerce. It enables users to buy small-ticket size items on loan, and pay back later when they're able to.

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The startup said it saw its monthly active merchants and users grow 10X in the last 18 months, led mainly by an increase in online shopping and a shift towards digital payments.

"Online checkout is built on a fragmented payment value chain that was created 60 years ago and has left the native-to-mobile retailers and consumers underserved," Nitya said in the press release, adding, Simpl's "fullstack checkout platform gives merchants ultimate control of user experience and helps them build trust with consumers at checkout."

The latest round brings Simpl's total funding raised to $83 million.

Its competitors, ZestMoney raised $50 million in a Series C round from Zip Co, an Australia stock exchange-listed BNPL firm, and existing investors, while Flexmoney raised $4.8 million in its Series A funding from Pravega Ventures, Silicon Valley-based Z5 Capital and several marquee individual investors.

Simpl works with over 7,000 companies including Zomato, 1MG, Jio, Makemytrip, Big Basket, and Crocs, among others. It has enabled 49 million transactions so far via its website.