Zaver offers BNPL to finance car purchases

Zaver, a Swedish BNPL start-up, completed a new round of financing in April. Specializing in high-dollar financing, the start-up aims to go where traditional players won't go. Whether it's for a car or a new kitchen, it offers its customers a more flexible way of paying with BNPL. Even if the Swedish company explains that it operates in an alternative market, it still faces tough, highly-developed competition from players such as Klarna and Paypal.

FACTS

• Zaver has raised a further $10 million in capital.

• The new funds will enable the company to further develop its business and secure its BNPL offering.

• Unlike traditional BNPL players on the European market, Zaver focuses on flexible financing of "durable" goods, i.e. goods that are often more expensive.

• The fintech therefore enables its customers to use BNPL for purchases of up to 200,000 euros, where its competitors generally stop at just 3,000 euros. Customers can therefore use BNPL for goods such as cars.

• To this end, Zaver has developed partnerships with well-known car brands such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Porsche.

• Thanks to highly-developed real-time analysis, Zaver claims to be able to estimate risk accurately and therefore offer to finance much higher amounts than the average.

• Since its commercial launch in 2019, the Swedish start-up has raised a total of $30 million.

CHALLENGES

• Zaver emphasizes the development of its technology: Unlike some of the traditional players in the BNPL market, Zaver believes it has focused on the development of high-performance risk assessment algorithms, rather than on the marketing side of the business. It's thanks to these technologies in particular that Zaver justifies not stopping at traditional amounts.

• Paving the way for the future of BNPL: While pioneers such as Klarna and Trustly have done their utmost to democratize online payment, they have not kept pace with the rising value of online transactions. Zaver's aim is therefore to fill the gap in the supply of high-value financing, at a time when even cars can be sold over the Internet.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Zaver currently offers its services in Sweden and Germany. Although the start-up has not specified how the funds will be distributed, it is likely that they will be used to further develop the start-up internationally, an idea that has been present for some time with the founders, who do not wish to limit themselves to Sweden.

• On the BNPL market in Europe, Zaver faces stiff competition from players such as Klarna, Paypal and more traditional brands like Santander and BNP Paribas.