Investors pour $8 million into merchant credit marketplace ChargeAfter

ChargeAfter, a startup that matches retail customers with financing options at the point of sale from various lenders, has raised $8 million in its first major funding round.

Propel Venture Partners led the round, with additional funding supplied by PICO Venture partners, Plug and Play and Synchrony.

ChargeAfter, launched in Israel in 2017, provides retailers with a single connection to offer retail customers various instant credit and financing offers at the checkout poin. ChargeAfter's announcement came as Purpose Financial announced a deal to acquire CreditGenie, which also serves the point of sale lending market.

Fintechs now account for about 40% of all unsecured installment debt issued in the U.S., according to Visa.

ChargeAfter will use the incoming funds to expand its U.S. presence with new offices in Sunnyvale, Calif.

“By creating this layer—a distribution system that neither banks nor retailers could build on their own—ChargeAfter is doing for credit what the large card networks once did for transactions,” said Jay Reinemann, partner at Propel Venture Partners, in a Wednesday press release.