Point of sale lending is a growing market in the UK that can see benefits for both retailers and their customers. Divido CEO Christer Holloman, talks through those benefits, as well as their recent working relationship and investment from Mastercard.
Point of sale lending is a growing market in the UK. What are some of the key drivers to this growth and, crucially, what’s in it for the consumer?
Retailers that work with Divido can offer their customers an opportunity to spread their costs over a period of time — in most cases completely interest free of charge. The retailer is paid the whole amount in advance via Divido. This is great for the customer as it makes it easier to afford a big purchase, which leads to more sales for the retailer. It’s a real win-win.
Tell us a bit about the role of partnerships in driving the growth of Divido. Do you have any battle stories to share or any top tips for other FinTechs to help drive effective collaboration?
As a relatively small player, working in partnership with others in our ecosystem is vital to our success; payment gateways, processors, ecommerce platforms, etc. We started working with Mastercard last year. On the back of our early successes, they decided to also invest in our Series A funding round this summer.
Building relationships takes a lot of time and different partners can move at different speeds so you should cast a wide net to increase the chances of being able to convert some of them into business.
Attending conferences like this is a great place to start!
What technologies are getting you and the team excited right now?
The technology that we are developing for end-to-end loan origination, which we license to banks, is probably the most exciting thing right now.
We have a session on the agenda called The War for Talent – which explores the competition between incumbents, startups and other tech players. Where would you place your bets in terms of the winners?
I don’t see it as a competition between us and incumbents when it comes to attracting talent to work for us. These two places of work offer two very different experiences, which will appeal to different people. Some of our employees have left to go work for larger companies, and several of our hires have previously worked for those same larger outfits.
Why have you decided to demo in the FinTech Stories stream at FinTECHTalents?
We are always up for trying new ways to meet potential new hires, clients and business partners.
Who would be the dream connection you would like to make at the Festival?
Someone that we end up working with or working for.
Can Festival goers use your solution to pay for craft beer?
Divido is particularly well suited for those big purchases, costing a few hundred pounds up to £25,000, so I wouldn’t recommended getting craft beer on finance!