PayTech startup Alma announces Series B funding round

French buy now, pay later venture Alma has closed a €49 million Series B financing round involving Idinvest, Cathay Innovation, the French Public Investment Bank (Bpifrance), Seaya Ventures and Picus Capital.

Founded in 2017, the company last year closed a €12.5 million Series A round of equity funding.

Following the injection of fresh capital, Alma plans to accelerate plans to develop its offering for retailers.

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Louis Chatriot , Co-founder and CEO, says: "This new round of financing is a validation of the continued trust of our investors in our vision of retail.”

“With the support of our investors, we are able to continue developing our service offering, in line with our desire to make payment facilities available to an ever growing number of merchants and consumers.”

Olivia de la Rivière, Growth Equity Investor at Bpifrance Large Venture Fund, says: “BNPL and instalment payment markets are constantly growing with retailers having to adapt their business model to ever changing customers’ needs, enabling them to reach higher conversion rates.”

“Alma is uniquely positioned to help businesses in meeting their needs and to become a leader of the payment market. We are highly impressed with the incredible performance of Louis and its team over the past two years.”

As well as raising the fresh capital, Alma also has around €21 million in debt financing from a mix of institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals.