Anyday raises €4 million in seed round offering 'An active stance on ethical payments'

Offering an alternative to the BNPL status-quo, Anyday has raised €4 million in a seed funding round provided by Helsinki’s Inventure. The service offers a BNPL model that has zero interest, no fees, and provides a high credit line for qualified customers. Having build a successful track record with web stores, the funding is aimed to be used to further roll-out Anyday’s offer to the Scandinavian market and implement the service at in-store locations.

Taking a look at the exorbitant fees imposed by most BNPL operators, Anyday founder and CEO Jonas Overgaard asked a simple question, “why?”

While many BNPL players have based their entire business model on imposing high fees, Anyday offers none of which and turns a profit by charging merchants a 3,95% transaction fee.

Anyday users must front 25% of the purchase price at the time of the transaction, with three successive payments to be made. Anyday CEO Jonas Overgaard declined to comment on how the remaining payments are structured, equal amounts or otherwise.

Users must meet a minimum credit score, which Anyday is reluctant to reveal exactly how they obtain citing only, "As it is now, Anyday uses a number of metrics to assess the credit worthiness of a customer. We approve around 50 % of the applications, and that is also rejecting around 50 %. Anydays business model is based on customers who can pay their purchases, so we have a strict process for approval, actually, more than the legislation requires," explained Overgaard.

While the company’s copy reads, “Buy now. Pay anyday,” the key structure to this text is any day (or Anyday) and not any day, and could be seen as misleading, as Overgaard informed me, "we use our company name as a brand - and therefore the use of the word."

If payments fall behind, the company reserves the right to activate a reminder fee procedure following Danish legislation. This legislation states:

A reminder fee from a private company may not exceed DKK 100 (The fee is VAT-free). A maximum of three reminders may be submitted with a fee for the same claim, and there must be at least 10 days in between. The first reminder with a fee may be sent immediately after the last timely payment day.

You are not entitled to receive a certain number of reminders before the claim can be sent for collection, but you must always have sent a notice with a deadline of 10 days to pay in before the claim is forwarded.

Anyday currently issues approximately 16,000 DKK (€2,100 ) per month in reminder fees and declined to comment on how many cases were then forwarded on to collection agencies.

The company points to over 1,000 businesses that are now offering Anyday’s split payment concept, and quotes over 20,000 customers having made purchases this way. Figures the company aims on ramping up as it enters further afield across Scandinavia.

“We had a hockey stick increase in underlying sales in the fourth quarter of ‘21, and we believe to have the technology and business model that will be part of drawing the future structure of split payment, where end consumers never pay interests or additional fees,” commented Overgaard.

“Anyday stands out with a proven track record that both the merchants and consumers are ready for a new generation of split payment solutions based on a fair and simple concept. This could take the debit economy a huge step forward, and that is why we support further roll-out,” concluded Inventure’s Tuomas Kosonen.