Zilch hikes provisions amid ‘record year’ for customer growth
UK fintech Zilch raised its provisions for losses in the last year as demand for buy now, pay later services ballooned.
The London-headquartered firm raised provisions for credit losses – funds set aside to cover estimated losses from failed repayments – to £27.4m – a 116 per cent jump from £12.7m the year prior.
Credit losses relative to gross merchandise value, which is the percentage of a company’s total sales that it expects to lose from customers who don’t pay back their debt, edged up to 1.5 per cent from 1.2 per cent.
But this came as registered customers topped five million with investment in customer acquisition rising 62 per cent to £9.8m. Gross Merchandise Value, which refers to total sales completed with Zilch, rose 73 per cent to £1.9bn.
The fintech darling was dubbed the UK’s fastest growing fintech unicorn – a business with a valuation north of $1bn.
Zilch boss takes pay cut amid path to profit
Whilst net losses persisted, Zilch marked a 79 per cent reduction to £10.5m.
It comes after the fintech booked its first quarterly profit in July 2024 and surpassed a revenue run rate of £100m. The firm did not disclose the size of the profit.
Revenue for 2025 surged 93 per cent to £110.3m.
Philip Belamant, Zilch’s chief executive, has kept the City abuzz over a listing in the last 12 months.
Belamant, who co-chairs Innovate Finance’s fintech unicorn council, said it would be “fantastic” and “the right thing” to list in London.
The fintech chief took a pay cut on the firm’s path to full-year profitability with Belamant’s pay packet falling to just over £1m, compared to £1.34m the year prior.
In October, Belamant laid out plans to bulk up Zilch’s workforce through “hiring more than 400 people over the next year and a half” in the UK.
The firm’s average number of employees for the year rose to 255 from 235.
The UK government announced a crackdown on buy now, pay later regulation earlier this year promising to end the “wild west” that left consumers exposed.
The new rules will require financial services providers to conduct affordability checks as part of efforts to make banking standards more consistent under the watch of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
But Zilch, which has been FCA-regulated since 2020, welcomed the news as “another steps towards improving consumer financial wellness and removing credit related anxiety for our customers”.