Beez: The Romanian Startup Offering Alternative To Credit Card Debt Raises €250K And Expands In The UK
How many times were you browsing online and end up finding the perfect watch, bag or gadget? And how many of those times it was the end of the month when your funds are low? Have you ever wondered why shopping online doesn’t always give you the right loyalty perks?
To get a traditional loan one has to pay a certain interest and in case of impossibility to cover the monthly fee to pay an extra penalty charge, which results in an increase of the price of the goods. Of course, some companies are offering the so-called payday loan, with value up to €500 and up to 30 days’ time to cover. The Romanian fintech startup Beez has already tapped into the market with its mobile app offering spending benefits like cashback and no interest for online shoppers. The company has recently raised €250K and is preparing to expand into the UK, reports EU-Startups.
Through the Beez app (or online platform) the users can search through products and brands over the stores of 500 online partners in the Romanian market or 1800 shops in the UK. When making an order, a commission (between 3.5-23%) is automatically distributed to your beez account. Even if the item is already discounted or promoted the customers still get the commission.
Targeting the big e-commerce players
Founded in 2018 by Lucian Cramba and Vasile Tamas, Beez already launched its UK-dedicated app and has more than 130 merchants in their UK marketplace and serves. The plan for the upcoming week is to add 1,700 more, the contracts for which are already prepared, which will result in covering around 65% of the UK e-commerce market. To do so the company is aiming to bring big names like Amazon, Asus, Nike and Under Armor.
On the other hand, merchants are getting extra revenue channel and a loyalty program based on performance, higher value per transaction and an increase in the recovery of abandoned carts.
Special deals and better terms for the customers
To attract customers who are already using credit card debt to shop online, Beez builds an alternative product that has the same benefits but drops the side effect of interest, commissions and late fees that the bank products have. The bigger vision is to eliminate the banks from the transaction equation and to support the costs directly from the retailer as a wholesale discount.
“As a business model, we take a percentage on between 5 and 10 on a loan transaction, adding up on revolving credit up to 60%”, shared Lucian Cramba, co-founder of Beez, to Trending Topics.
For the users, the added benefits include also cashback, automated saving solution and reward system. Beez gives to its customers with good financial behavior the option to use their saved-through-the-app money to get up to 40 percent discount when buying products. Recently the company has released a new option called Beez Pay, aiming to motivate users to stop using credit products and instead purchase them through a saving process.
So far, the company has around 96K users who have made €3.5M in transactions, 60% of which were made in the last 3 months.
Next milestone is €1.8M
The recent round of €250K was led by the Romanian fund GapMinder Venture Partners, with the participation of Roca investment fund and a private investor. This brings the total investment in Beez to €450k. In the next six months, the team is aiming to attract additional €1.8M and expertise in e-commerce, tax and legal in financial institutions field, VC funds to join advisory board.
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