ChargeAfter— global network providing a complete solution for Point-of-Sale Financing from multiple lenders

Offering free access to credit at the point of sale(POS) can be a potent business-generating tool for companies of all sizes. A Forrester Research study found that companies that implemented an online POS financing option experienced a 32% increase in sales.

POS financing can come in credit cards, unsecured loans, and lines of credit. Point-of-sale loans are increasingly popular because of lower rates and developments in expedited underwriting methods.

POS loans are nothing new. Various sectors, such as orthodontic clinics and car dealers, have long offered flexible installment loans to customers. POS financing is a win-win for businesses and customers when done correctly.

As a small business owner, offering customers easy access to POS financing can turn your business into a commanding money-generating machine. More giant corporations and retail chains are no strangers to financing portals, often offering their own in-house lines of credit.

However, for many small enterprises, this can be a capital-intensive exercise that burdens you with risk and could put your customers out of pocket because of exorbitant Annual Percentage Rates (APRs). Additionally, many customers are migrating from unsecured loans and traditional lines of credit to convenient, personalized financing options.

Businesses can partner with ChargeAfter for an innovative and affordable solution that offers seamless integration and flexibility for your enterprise and customers.

Combination of the power of finance, embedded finance experience, and merchants taking more control over selling financial services—the idea behind ChargeAfter

“There were a few key trends that led to the idea of ChargeAfter,” says Meidad Sharon, the CEO, and Founder of ChargeAfter.

The first was the power of financing. As only 3% of consumers that reach an ecommerce site end up buying, Meidad saw an opportunity to close that gap with improved lending and financing options—reducing false positives and providing more lending options has the potential to increase conversion rates.

The second was the power of embedded finance. Embedded payment and lending process in a seamless check-out experience makes the natural flow of the consumer journey more successful. Merchants were also starting to control the lending process more and include financial services in their offerings to customers.

“The combination of the power of finance and an embedded finance experience, and merchants taking more control over selling financial services, led me to build ChargeAfter,” concludes Meidad.

Q. What innovation means at ChargeAfter and the challenges overcome to rise to the top

When asked how he would define innovation, Meidad says, “Innovation is ultimately about seeing the unmet needs in the marketplace and coming up with solutions to meet those needs better, whether through new services, products or technologies.”

According to CEO Sharon,  a good innovation strategy involves seeing the macroeconomic trends of an industry so that you can understand where unmet needs are in the marketplace and determine how best to solve those needs before and better than anyone else. This involves being close to your customers and understanding their pain points so that you can help them solve their challenges—those happening now and ahead of the next curve.

At ChargeAfter, the team saw that merchants wanted to provide more flexible financing to their clients to help them increase sales since, on average, only 3% of online visitors buy goods on any given website. ChargeAfter became focused on helping merchants increase that number with more embedded finance options like installments, revolving credit, lease to own, etc., which could easily be provided to the consumer at the point of sale. This was solved by the company’s technology, which enables merchants to offer their consumers an array of financing options through its network of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) lenders, all of which are available in one quick, user-friendly application. As a result, check-out financing approval rates of ChargeAfter’s clients moved from 15-30% to upwards of 85% of applications.  

ChargeAfter’s biggest challenge was going to market quickly to get consumers’ and merchants’ feedback. The company was very focused on understanding the market needs of the consumer, the merchant, and the lenders’ partners and then building the right product to address and solve all of their pain points.

Streamlining BNPL check-out process and substantially increasing BNPL rates—ChargeAfter’s impact on E-commerce

ChargeAfter gives merchants access to a network of lenders and credit options in a single platform, making it easy for them to offer consumers various financing options online and in-store. The platform can be branded by the merchant and contains all BNPL products such as card-based installments, split pay, long and short-term installments, 0% APR financing, revolving credit, B2B financing, lease-to-own, and more, all available in a single integration.

ChargeAfter makes the consumer shopping experience easier and more frictionless while simultaneously enabling merchants to sell more by streamlining the BNPL check-out process. Providing consumers with a network of lenders versus just a single lender or financing option can move BNPL rates from historical lows of 15-30% to upwards of 85%. The considerable jump helps merchants increase sales and help consumers buy and pay more efficiently for the goods they need.

ChargeAfter also offers banks, acquirers, and gateways its white-label BNPL platform with access to its robust lender network. Banks and other lending partners can quickly be on-boarded as a lender themselves. They can use ChargeAfter’s technology as their own white-labeled BNPL platform, enabling them to offer robust BNPL solutions to their network of merchants. This turnkey platform seamlessly blends into existing branding and provides all BNPL products in one quick, user-friendly application.

ChargeAfter’s plan for the future — Attracting global investments and focusing on growth

Leading investors have taken notice of ChargeAfter’s unique offering, investing $44M in the company’s Series B round, which was announced in March 2022. The Series B round was led by The Phoenix, with participation from global banking giants Citi Ventures (Citigroup), Banco Bradesco, MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), and existing investors. The new funding follows a strategic investment, partnership with Visa, and an $8M Series A round in late 2019, which raised the company’s total amount to $60 million. Over the past year, ChargeAfter has also added 20 new lenders to its network, with 70 lenders expected to be added by the end of 2022.

Constructing a global fintech giant with a streamlined BNPL check-out process

Meidad Sharon is the CEO and founder of ChargeAfter. He is a long-time high-tech industry veteran, with over two decades of experience scaling global payments and SaaS businesses with a people and customer-first approach.

Jeffrey Tower is the EVP of Global Business Development. Tower is an eCommerce and fintech marketing and business development professional with nearly twenty years of experience leading multinational institutions in the BNPL, fintech and eCommerce industries.

“Every consumer deserves a financing option.”