16. Divido

Founders: Christer Holloman, Fredrik Borgquist, and Anders Hallsten
Founded: January 2015 (launched September 2015)
Website: www.divido.com

Divido is one of few companies to hold the rare distinction of appearing in the Startups 100 not once, not twice, but three times.

The London-based fintech start-up was founded in 2015 by friends Christer Holloman, Anders Hallsten and Fredrik Borquist.

The business idea originated when Holloman – who set up Glassdoor.com in Europe, the Middle East and Africa – found his local independent furniture company was unable to offer him a monthly instalment finance plan like those offered by large retail chains.

Inspired, Holloman sought to build a solution. That solution was Divido.

Now used by more than 800 retailers, Divido allows companies to offer customers the option to pay for big ticket items in instalments.

It connects to multiple lenders who then bid for business, which drives competition and lowers the cost for both the merchant and the customer.

Divido charges a set-up fee as well as a monthly fee and then takes a fee for every consumer transaction. It claims its service can help to “turn browsers into buyers”, boosting conversion by 40% and increasing basket size by 12%.

The start-up operates an omni-channel platform across online, in-store and mobile. It also works across multiple currencies, meaning retailers can cover multiple markets with one integration.

Brands big and small are among its customers such as Lenovo, Simba, and BMW, with the latter rolling out Divido’s after-sales financing to more than 60 of its retailers throughout the UK last year.

After expanding to Germany just before Christmas 2017, Divido is set to expand to a further 15 countries in 2018 as it looks to build the future of payments.

Having been recognised by Google, Forrester and the UK government as leading innovation in the retail and finance industries, Divido has aspirations to become the world’s largest retail finance platform – and it seems like only a matter of time.