Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, an owner and operator of 389 Ikea stores and e-commerce operations in 32 countries, has invested USD 22.5 million in Israeli fintech company Jifiti, a developer of consumer financing solutions for bank lenders and merchants, the two companies announced on Tuesday.
Ingka Investments has received a minority stake in the point-of-sale consumer financing platform.
Based in Modiin, Israel, Jifiti’s platform enables banks, lenders, and merchants to easily and effortlessly deploy “buy now, pay later” programs at any merchant’s point-of-sale, online, and in-store.
Jifiti’s solution works seamlessly with any existing point-of-sale or e-commerce system, eliminating the integration process between lenders and the merchant’s systems. The company operates in North America and Europe, with offices in the US and Tel Aviv.
Jifiti will use the investment from Ingka Group to embark on its next growth phase and achieve its goal of becoming the market-leading point-of-sale financing platform. The company plans to enhance its technological and product development and scale internationally to new markets. Jifiti will remain bank, card network, and retailer-agnostic and will retain full independence and control over its operations.
The investment is the latest in a series of investments made by Ingka Group that will strengthen its core Ikea retail business by investing in innovative companies in areas such as digitalization, customer fulfillment, fintech, and sustainability that support its ongoing transformation to become more affordable, accessible, and sustainable.
“Ingka Group is taking decisive steps into financial services, and a core part of our journey is to help make Ikea more affordable and accessible for our customers. This deal will further our integration of easily accessible financing solutions into the Ikea offering. Our investment in Jifiti is another exciting step for Ingka Investments, as it follows our other recent financial services investment in Ikano Bank. We are confident this new investment will support us even more in becoming a life-long partner to our customers by helping improve their life at home and grow their businesses,” said Krister Mattsson, managing director of Ingka Investments.
Ingka Group and Jifiti have a long-standing commercial partnership, with Jifiti acting as a facilitator of Ikea Retail’s and consumer financing services. With its local banking partners in Spain, France, Portugal, and Belgium, Ikea has already been offering financing in its stores via the Jifiti platform since 2019 and is now rolling out into other countries.
The aim is to have the Jifiti platform facilitate Ikea’s in-store and e-commerce point-of-sale financing across markets. Ingka Group and Jifiti will collaborate to develop and extend Ikea Retail’s financial services to its 706 million annual in-store customers and 3.6 billion e-commerce visitors worldwide.
“When two companies as aligned as Jifiti and Ingka Group take their partnership to the next level through investment, it signals the first of many exciting changes in the landscape of the industry,” said Yaakov Martin, CEO and co-founder of Jifiti. “This investment will empower both our organizations to achieve our goals in the point-of-sale financing space and fuel Jifiti’s technological and international growth. A partnership, such as ours, that serves the vision and purpose of both parties is poised for success and will have a positive impact on the BNPL industry.”
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The article was originally published by NoCamels, a leading news website covering breakthrough innovation from Israel for a global audience.