Paris-based Younited, an instant credit provider for the e-economy in Europe, announced on Thursday that it has raised €60M in a fresh round of funding. The company has now entered the “unicorn” club at a valuation of €1.1B, a significant increase since the last round announced by the company in May 2021.
The current round of funding came from Younited’s main shareholders Eurazeo, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, Bpifrance via its Large Venture fund, and Goldman Sachs.
Instant credit for the e-economy
Founded in 2009 by Charles Egly and Geoffroy Guigou, Younited provides an online platform to connect and facilitate financial transactions between lenders and borrowers without the intermediation of a traditional financial institution.
The company says, “Our Plug & Play technology allows global brands and e-merchants to boost sales by offering an instant credit solution at checkout, whether online or in-store. Neobanks and e-banking players integrate our instant credit solutions to broaden the range and quality of services offered to their customers.”
Younited, which has nearly a million customers, provides access to instant, simple and transparent credit to help refurbish homes, go on vacation, buy a new smartphone or for any other projects. Currently, the company operates in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany, and generates close to €2B in yearly GMV.
Strong growth in 2022
Younited, which provides finance options for sums up to €50K, witnessed strong growth in 2022. According to the company, it managed a +70 per cent growth in GMV (+119 per cent in 2021) to reach €1.6B and +54 per cent in total revenues to reach €190M.
With such growth, the company has quickly converged towards profitability. Younited’s growth is driven by both its “Direct-to-consumer” channel (+50 per cent of GMV in 2022) and its “Partnerships” channel (+185 per cent of GMV in 2022). The company’s “Direct-to-Consumer” business has been profitable in France since 2019 and in Italy since 2021. Younited has reported that it will also be profitable in all five countries this year (2022).
Introduced at the end of 2018, Younited’s “Partnerships” channel provides business associates, such as retailers and financial institutions, the technologies and expertise needed to implement an instant credit solution on their platforms.
Merchants can deploy the “Younited Pay” financing solution on their website or in-store in just a few days to finance shopping carts of up to €50K for a term of up to 84 months. This solution offers their consumers a simple UX and all the consumer protection guarantees offered by regulated amortising credit, unlike unregulated split payment solutions or BNPL that perform little or no credit analysis, and hence offer little or no protection to borrowers.
Capital utilisation
Younited says it will use the funds to continue the deployment of its “instant credit” and open banking solutions and the development of its “Partnerships” activity in all its geographies. Based on open banking, which gives users the option to quickly reveal their bank account history, “Instant credit” offers a quick and easy application procedure.
With an aim of reaching 80 per cent by the end of 2023, the “Instant credit” offer now accounts for about 40 per cent of loans funded by the Direct-to-Consumer channel in France, 97 per cent of loans funded by the DTC Spain channel, and 100 per cent of credits funded by the Merchant Partnerships channel.
Charles Egly, Chairman of the Management Board and co-founder of Younited, says, “While Younited’s historical activity (“Direct-to-Consumer”) is profitable in 2022 across all of our 5 countries, this new fundraising will allow us to continue investing in our disruptive technology as well as in the deployment of our second activity (“Partnerships”) launched more recently.”
