Simpl

Simpl operates as a fintech company in India, offering a 'buy now, pay later' (BNPL) platform designed to streamline the online checkout process. The company was founded in 2015 by Nityanand Sharma and Chaitra Chidanand and is headquartered in Bengaluru. The concept for Simpl emerged from the founders' personal frustrations with the complexities of digital payments and credit access in India upon their return from the US. Sharma, the current CEO, has a background in finance, having worked at Goldman Sachs and co-founding a hedge fund. This experience proved instrumental in developing the platform's risk models. Chidanand, who is no longer with the company, brought her experience in building scalable tech products from Silicon Valley and her academic focus on payments and lending from Stanford.

The company's primary offering is a 1-tap checkout service that provides users with a seamless payment experience, eliminating the need for OTPs and reducing transaction failures. Simpl aggregates a user's purchases from various partner merchants into a single bill, which is then paid every 15 days. This service is positioned as a convenient alternative to traditional credit cards, targeting tech-savvy urban consumers between 18 and 45 years old. For its merchant clients, which include major players like Zomato and BigBasket, Simpl's platform aims to increase sales conversion rates and customer loyalty by simplifying the payment process. The service integrates with merchant platforms, including Shopify, via a software development kit (SDK).

Simpl's business model is centered on charging merchants a transaction fee, typically a percentage of the purchase value. Merchants pay this fee in exchange for potentially higher sales and improved customer satisfaction. Additional revenue may be generated from late payment fees charged to consumers, though this is structured to be transparent. The company has secured significant investment, raising a total of $83 million over four funding rounds, with its latest being a $40 million Series B round in October 2021, led by IA Ventures and Valar Ventures.

Keywords: buy now pay later, BNPL, fintech, 1-tap checkout, online payments, merchant solutions, e-commerce conversion, digital credit, payment gateway, consumer finance