Zilch, a London start-up that has built a ‘buy now, pay later’ business out of cutting deals directly with consumers, hence bypassing the need for integrating anything new into an e-commerce site’s check-out process as many of the leading providers like Klarna and Clearpay have done. The prospect of bypassing the retailer means that Zilch has been able to fend off competition and scale up by making its service and acquire more customers faster.

Last November, the company raised $110 million in a Series C funding round that valued the start-up at $2 billion, four times the $500 million it was valued at in March when it completed an $80 million raise.

Zilch doesn’t work with an agency currently, and after investing over £10m in advertising in Q3 2021, it will continue to spend large amounts on advertising and will look for new channels to reach its audience.