UK-based Zilch, a buy now pay later service, raises $80M Series B at a $500M+ valuation from Gauss Ventures, M&F Fund, and others
Context & Ripple Effects
This April 2021 raise is the opening move in Zilch's steepest funding stretch: within months the company added a $110M Series B extension, then closed 2021 with another $110M round at a $2B valuation led by Ventura Capital — a fourfold valuation jump inside seven months of this $500M+ Series B.
The later record gives this round its real significance: Zilch now says it reached overall profitability within four years of founding, yet when it raised $176.7M from KKCG in late 2025 the price was the same $2B as 2022. The arc from this article to that flat mark is the story of BNPL's valuation cycle.
First-order effects
- Zilch enters mid-2021 with over $200M committed across the Series B and its extension, giving it war chest to fund receivables and customer acquisition while rivals raise on separate timetables.
- Gauss Ventures and M&F Fund take early positions at $500M+ that are marked up fourfold within the year when Ventura Capital prices Zilch at $2B.
Second-order effects
- The consumer BNPL funding surge pulls adjacent credit players into the race: neobank Zopa raised $300M from Vision Fund 2 months later at a $1B valuation, competing for the same UK consumer credit wallet.
- Berlin-based Billie's $640M-valued Series C shows the same investor appetite spilling into B2B invoicing, widening BNPL beyond checkout instalments.
Third-order effects
- The pattern that ends with Zilch raising at a flat $2B in 2025 despite claimed profitability points to a structural repricing: growth-era BNPL multiples gave way to a regime where capital is priced off earnings, capping paper valuations even for self-described profitable lenders.
The trend: BNPL valuations inflated rapidly through 2021, then flattened once investors began pricing the sector on profitability rather than user growth — Zilch's trajectory from $500M to $2B to a frozen $2B traces the whole cycle.