Happy Pay Secures $1.8M Pre-seed Funding

South African fintech, Happy Pay, has secured $1.8 million in pre-seed funding in a round co-led by E4E Africa and 4Di Capital. The fintech offers Buy Now, Pay Later services.

The funding round also had participation from DotExe Ventures, Launch Africa, Equitable Ventures, Felix Strategic Investment, U.S.-based Gaingels, and local angel investors. Also, Fin Africa (formerly Finclusion Group), a company that provide credit, savings, insurance is backing the fintech’s debt facility.

Happy Pay plans to use the funding to launch several innovative products, boost marketing, and expand its merchant base. The company also intends to strategically expand its team while focusing on efficient growth.

“This funding will enable us to accelerate our growth and expand our innovative product offerings, ultimately providing more value to the customers and merchants that we serve, ” Wesley Billett, co-founder and CEO of Happy Pay, confirmed.

Launched in 2023, Happy Pay is a Buy Now, Pay Later provider that delivers an interest-free and deposit-free credit solution to its users.

With claims to 150,000 active users, the platform uses AI-driven credit scoring to calculate customer affordability in seconds, reducing costs and inefficiencies while ensuring a seamless checkout experience for both consumers and merchants.

The fintech has experienced rapid growth over the past year, attracting a 900 percent increase in user growth driven by millennials and Gen Zs who prefer BNPL options over traditional credit cards.

Patrick Postrehovsky, Co-Founder and COO of Happy Pay, stated that the company has been driving growth for South African eCommerce merchants by offering access to new customers, higher average order values, and improved conversion rates.

He highlighted that the fintech provides consumers with zero-cost alternatives to high-interest credit, enabling customers to access the formal financial system using their own affordability data.

Recently, South Africa has experienced growth in the BNPL services reportedly driven by the country’s large population of financially unserved and underserved consumers, increasing eCommerce activity, and challenging economic conditions.