London-based Buy Now Pay Later fintech Butter raises £15.8 million

London-based Buy Now Pay Later platform Butter has raised £15.8 million in a new round.

Led by BCI Finance, the credit arm of London-based venture builder Blenheim Chalcot, the round also saw participation from a number of undisclosed private investors.

Originally conceived as a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) travel agency, Butter has grown into a BNPL open-banking based shopping app, and the funding is expected to accelerate further rollout of the product.

“With its FCA authorisation already in place, the business is well placed to continue strong growth while assisting its customers in managing their money better,” comments BCI Investment Manager Paul Maurici.

Initially annoyed at the lack of flexible payment options available when planning a holiday, co-founders Timothy Davis, Stefan Hobl, and Nik Haukohl decided there must be a better way.

Butter achieved FCA regulated status in 2017, and four years later Butter has gone from “let me spread the cost of this holiday out over some time” to “let me spread the cost of everything out over some time”. 

When the global pandemic brought the travel and tourism industry to a grinding halt, Butter acted quickly and adapted their existing tech to cover any purchase from any online store. In so much, Butter counts over 100,000 customers and offers installment payments across every consumer vertical, and offers an alternative to that other payment provider.

“We want to remove the stigma surrounding the buy now pay later offering and empower consumers by allowing them to budget and spend intelligently and in a manner that suits their individual financial needs,” adds Butter co-founder and CEO Timothy Davis. “We’ve set out to achieve this by building a platform focussed around transparency, responsible lending and the ability to transact on bigger ticket items compared to other providers, whilst also offering more choice to customers through our unique over-the-top solution, which enables consumers to shop any online store in existence with Butter.”