BNPL : Pledg enters BtoB e-commerce with Allianz Trade

Pledg has just announced a partnership with the German credit insurance giant, Allianz Trade (Euler Hermes), to launch a fractional payment offer for the BtoB market. This is the first step of the start-up towards a professional target, which offers essential growth relays to credit players, given the strong growth rates of BtoB e-commerce.

FACTS

• The solution is available to e-retailers and B2B marketplaces, with deferred payment at 30 or 60 days.

• In terms of the process :

• the customer chooses his payment option;

  • an API queries Allianz Trade's database of over 80 million companies worldwide;

  • Pledg's algorithm gives instant approval and makes the immediate payment to the merchant;

  • the start-up then manages the deferred payment;

  • In the event of non-payment, Allianz Trade takes over the collection and even the compensation.

CHALLENGES

• Rejuvenate the experience of BtoB e-commerce customers: even though this market is growing rapidly, the customer experience remains less fluid and the services less varied than on BtoC e-commerce sites. The product itself is very well known to companies (deferred payment at 30 or 60 days and other factoring offers). But Pledg's objective is precisely to reproduce the same customer experience that the start-up offers on BtoC merchant sites.

• Finding growth drivers: It is urgent to find growth drivers when the BtoC business is under such pressure. In this context, the BtoB market appears to be an Eldorado, especially given the growth rates of BtoB e-commerce: the share of online purchases in BtoB sales in France was 24% in 2020 (compared to 18% in 2015); it should now reach 33% in 2025 (source: Statista).

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Pledg has announced that it has 400 clients in France and Europe (twice as many as last year), including Leroy Merlin, Odalys Vacances and Corsair. The start-up also provides the technical infrastructure of Django to La Banque Postale.

• In this segment, it will be challenged by other players in the French market, starting with its direct competitor, Alma, a former service provider to La Banque Postale, which has just won Apple's tender for the financing of its products in shops and online. Alma has long been interested in the BtoB market and has accelerated its R&D to be able to release a product this year. It is already partnered with the German BtoB marketplace Ankorstore.

• Other larger players are also interested: this is the case of Klarna, which has signed an agreement with Billie in Germany to address the needs of professionals.

• Finally, the French fintech Mansa has also explored this avenue, with a dedicated scoring tool that enables risk assessment for very small businesses. Today, Pledg is differentiating itself by relying on the unique Allianz Trade database, which will enable it to address the needs of large companies.