AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vyze, a leader in cloud-based financial technology solutions for retailers, today announced that it has closed $13.1 million in venture capital financing. The Series C round is led by Austin Ventures with additional investment from Fathom Capital and Starvest Partners. Vyze also welcomed Ken DeAngelis, Co-Founder and General Partner at Austin Ventures to the Vyze Board of Directors.
The funding will be used to accelerate growth and fuel product innovation and expansion as leading retailers adopt Vyze’s multi-lender platform to connect more consumers with more credit options at checkout. Over the past 12 months, Vyze has more than doubled its retail client base and increased the finance volume through its platform by 700%. The company has also continued to forge new partnerships with market-leading lenders to provide diverse financing options for consumers, ranging from branded store credit cards to installment loans to lease-to-own. Vyze is currently live in more than 2,000 stores throughout the U.S., in addition to leading eCommerce sites and call centers.
“Traditional retail financing relies on an outdated retail financing model, resulting in limited consumer choice, and credit rejection rates that average 50% in the store and up to 75% online,” said Keith Nealon, CEO of Vyze. “In contrast, the Vyze platform connects retailers with a variety of lenders, boosting approval rates to upwards of 80%. Retailers using Vyze gain access to multiple credit solutions to better serve all their customers and drive continuous growth.”
“Vyze is bringing much needed innovation to the retail financing market with a platform that optimizes the entire industry, similar to a service like Airbnb in the lodging industry,” added Chris Pacitti at Austin Ventures. “Building out this type of optimization for a marketplace is not a trivial task, but Vyze is now at the point where network effects are starting to yield the exponential growth promised by the model.”
Vyze: Bridging the Financing Gap
According to an April 2017 Forrester Research report, digital business leaders must evolve their financing program and “work with multiple credit vendors to get more approvals and happier customers.”1 However, 8 out of 10 retailers today offer no lending at all or work with a single lender, as the technology to do so has been limited. This means that many consumers have no viable credit choices, resulting in abandoned sales for retailers. Meanwhile, hundreds of lenders want to finance customer purchases but have no way to reach shoppers at checkout.
Vyze’s multi-lender platform bridges the gap between consumer demand for financing and the available lending supply today. Now, through a single Vyze integration, retailers can access multiple lenders to keep up with changing consumer preferences. Vyze’s retail clients increase revenue and strengthen customer loyalty through expanded credit and are able to continually optimize the lending mix without additional time, cost or effort.
“Today’s credit practices mean that retailers are leaving a quarter of a trillion dollars on the table through rejected applications and abandoned purchases,” said John Komkov at Fathom Capital. “Vyze’s financing platform helps retailers extend more credit to more consumers - increasing sales and improving the customer experience. Vyze is disrupting retail financing in a profound way, and we are excited to join this round as a new investor.”
About Vyze
Vyze is a leading cloud-based financial technology company for retailers. By combining technology, a comprehensive lending supply, and support under one roof, Vyze delivers retailers more satisfying financing experiences for their customers, wherever and whenever they shop.
1 Forrester Research, “Boost Your Conversion with Checkout Financing”, April 28, 2017
