Zilch plans to use its FCA licence to accelerate innovation, teasing new products including stablecoins.
Zilch has secured a payments services licence from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as the company looks broaden past its buy, now, pay later (BNPL) remit.
The approval, announced on December 11, gives the London based fintech the regulatory freedom to bring more of its payments infrastructure in house. This removes its reliance on third party providers and allows the company to accelerate product development.
Zilch has also said the licence gives it the ability to explore emerging technologies, specifically highlighting the potential use of stablecoins in its announcement of the milestone.
“In just five years, we have amassed over 5.3 million users and thousands of retail partners,” said Zilch Co-founder and CEO Philip Belamant. “Now, with our licence, we are even better positioned to move faster, more efficiently and more cost effectively, and to take advantage of new innovations as they mature.”
Looking past BNPL
Zilch first made its name in BNPL but the company is now looking to become a much broader payments and data platform.
One of the clearest signs of this change is Intelligent Commerce, the company’s AI platform which analyses millions of browsing and shopping interactions. Zilch can turn this behavioural data into insights for pricing, marketing and customer acquisition.
Another product is Zilch Pay, expected to launch in 2026, which pushes the company further into the checkout and merchant services space. The one click payment experience places Zilch alongside competitors such as Klarna, PayPal and Stripe, with the aim of simplifying online purchases while giving merchants more control over the customer journey.
With direct access to regulatory roadmap discussions and early testing opportunities, Zilch says the FCA approval will help it bring these and future products to market earlier than originally expected.
The company has also expressed interest in emerging areas including stablecoins and AI driven commerce. These technologies are becoming increasingly relevant as the industry experiments with new forms of digital money and automated, agent based transactions.
As part of the company’s announcement, it mentioned strengthening its relationship with Visa through Principal Membership. The partnership creates opportunities to collaborate on new payment technologies and commercial models and gives Zilch access to more infrastructure and settlement capabilities.
“We are excited to continue supporting Zilch’s growth to bring new, cutting edge solutions to the UK market,” said Mark Berry, Head of United Kingdom Clients at Visa.
“Working together, we can deliver smarter ways to pay and be paid for people and businesses across the country at scale.”
