Rely bags up to S$100m Goldbell financing for buy-now-pay-later

FINTECH firm Rely has obtained a facility from a unit of local small and medium-sized enterprise Goldbell Financial Services to finance up to S$100 million in buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) transactions, the startup announced in press statement. (see amendment note)

The facility is provided by Polaris, the strategic partnerships arm of Goldbell Financial Services. This will allow Rely to expand its BNPL service to new merchants, the startup said.

Separately, Rely has inked a partnership with retail landlord Lendlease to provide BNPL services for consumers at the mall 313@somerset. Looking ahead, the startup aims to scale operations and enter partnerships with retailers in Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.

"Scaling with Rely, a pioneer and leader in Singapore's BNPL industry, demonstrates the culmination of Polaris's personalised data-centric approach to lending," says Alex Chua, chief executive of Goldbell Financial Services.

"By coupling Rely's data acquisition capabilities with Polaris's innovative and scalable funding structure, Rely can sustainably support larger digital transactions," he added.

Founded in 2017, Rely provides a BNPL service where shoppers pay for their purchases over three to four equal payments, interest-free. Rely counts e-commerce platform Qoo10 as a partner. Retailers that have come aboard its platform include Charles & Keith, Aldo Shoes and SK Jewellery Group.

Goldbell Financial Services is a unit of vehicle leasing firm Goldbell Group. Besides Polaris, the the non-bank financial institution has a private debt investment platform, Goldbell Evolution Network.

Amendment note: An original version of this story stated that Goldbell is financing up to US$100 million in transactions. It is instead S$100 million.