British firm Fly Now Pay Later has secured a $75m debt funding package provided by funds managed by Atalaya Capital Management to support expansion in the US.
As part of the funding package, the New-York headquartered financier has also provided an equity investment into the business.
Founded in 2015 by Jasper Dykes (pictured), Fly Now Pay Later allows people to pay for their holidays in instalments.
It has already had £45 million from two previous equity funding rounds.
Dykes said: “To have secured another landmark amount during one of the worst slowdowns in travel history after it ground to a halt is testament to the efforts of the whole team.
“The US, which we entered in 2020, purposely formed a big part of our resilience plan as domestic leisure travel has been less affected than in Europe. And will continue to be a key focus as we enter 2022.
“There’s always a temptation to put the brakes on in times of significant headwinds, but with consumer expectations continuing to shift from traditional lending towards alternative convenient digital experiences, we upheld our investment commitments into developing our technology and threw ourselves into bolstering our partnership network in the States, which is really gaining momentum.”
Fly Now Pay Later’s merchant partnerships range from SME travel operators to carriers such as Malaysia Airlines, Air Serbia and Azores Airlines.
The company employs 90 staff in the UK, US and Latvia and aims to take on more than 250 employees across the three countries as travel restrictions ease in 2022.
Its services can be used to book flights, hotels, package holidays and car hire.
James Intermont, principal at Atalaya Capital Management, added: “Fly Now Pay Later has handled the past 24 months admirably. It’s a strong brand in a high growth mode that’s well positioned to capture the buoyant category demand.”