Another Klarna rival on the rise? French BNPL Alma shops for €210 million for European expansion

In a market where competition and consumer expectations are continuously growing, French buy now pay later (BNPL) startup Alma has just completed a €210-million Series C financing round. The round consists of €115 million in equity and €95 million in debt funding.

Existing investors, including Cathay Innovation, Eurazeo, Bpifrance via its Large Venture fund, Seaya Ventures, Picus Capital participated. New investors such as Tencent, GR Capital and Roosh Ventures also joined in.

The fresh capital will help the startup to accelerate the large-scale delivery of their products and vision throughout the retail ecosystem in continental Europe.

Founded by Louis Chatriot and Guillaumes Desloges, Alma wants to reinvent the relationship between merchants and consumers. It enables the latter to buy what they really want and upgrade to higher-quality items, and the former to convert more customers and increase basket sizes.

Louis Chatriot, Co-founder and CEO of Alma said: “We are creating the most trusted BNPL platform to swing the balance in favour of merchants and consumers. We want to be part of consumers' daily lives and help them shop better, not just more. We strive to be an efficient and sane alternative to traditional consumer credit. It's equally important for us to improve our merchants' economics by bringing them new customers in a balanced relationship.”

After its success in France, Alma is looking at expansion to become the preferred BNPL alternative throughout Europe. This €210 million fundraising will allow it to facilitate access to BNPL solutions to more than 270 million European consumers, throughout France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium.

In 2022, it is planning to open new markets, especially the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Ireland and Austria.

Last year the BNPL company focused on expanding its product suite (launching in-store payment terminal-based installments, longer-term financing options, and B2B pay later), as well as kickstarting expansion efforts. The company has recently onboarded major French retailers and marketplaces as Alain Afflelou, Etam, Galeries Lafayette, Printemps or Ankorstore. In addition to this, Alma will continue to expand its product suite in particular with its consumer-focused payment application as well as scale existing products such as pay in up to 12 months and B2B payments.

Only three years after its launch, the company has over 6,000 merchants of all industries and its transaction volume has already exceeded €1 billion annually.