Global payments platform Thredd has renewed its partnership with Zilch, the world’s first ad-subsidised payments network (ASPN), amid industry-wide growth.
Building on an existing agreement, Thredd will use its expertise in payment network connectivity and transaction management to support Zilch’s objectives. This will involve working together on new product and service innovations to enhance the experience for Zilch’s more than four million customers.
Rakesh Harji, Chief Operating Officer at Zilch, remarked: “From inception, our partnership with Thredd has been crucial in building the core infrastructure to securely handle over 10 million monthly transactions and maintain a seamless user experience.
“Thredd has been with us from zero to over 4m customers and we look forward to continued innovation on products and services as we scale the business and expand our offering to our highly active customers who trust Zilch for their increasing daily lifestyle payment needs.”
This renewal comes at a time of exponential growth across the industry. In February, Thredd observed an increase in debit and prepaid transactions early in the year across various sectors. This trend has persisted, with notable growth in Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) transactions (+56% year-to-date), corporate spending management (+74%), and B2C retail transactions (+28%).
Jim McCarthy, Chief Executive Officer at Thredd, commented: “2024 continues to build on the robust foundation we established in 2023. Our clients, both new and old, are driving strong transaction growth, through a combination of market expansion and increasingly innovative financial services solutions.
“The expansion we have seen is a testament to their resilience and the demand for new payments use cases in both B2C and rapidly growing B2B payments.”
One of the aforementioned sectors experiencing growth is BNPL, which Thredd reports “shows no signs of slowing.” Since January 2022, Thredd’s clients in this area have experienced a 175% increase in transaction volumes and Zilch is leading the charge in this growth.
Zilch has experienced a lot of success recently, which has been highlighted by its plans to further expand. To help with this planned expansion, the company secured £100m of securitised debt financing, facilitated by Deutsche Bank in June.
McCarthy concluded: “Working together with Zilch since their inception, we’ve had the privilege to be a part of their incredible growth. We sincerely appreciate the trust that Zilch has put in Thredd to help them reach more than 10 million monthly payments, and are looking forward to continuing our close working relationship to help Zilch set further growth records.
“We’ve seen Zilch grow from zero to over 4 million registered users, gain industry-leading utilisation rates where their customers pay on their platform 100 times a year on average and over $3bn in sales using Thredd as a trusted partner”