Debite, a financing platform for early-stage companies, launched in the UK with a mission to help businesses more effectively manage their cash flow and maximize growth potential.
Tackling one of the primary reasons why most start-ups fail, Debite’s Buy Now Pay Later model means customers benefit from smoothing the cost of expensive business payments, such as subscriptions, marketing and inventory, with a repayment plan.
The platform has been built to serve the needs of early-stage companies that are currently underserved by traditional lenders. Debite will offer dynamic spending limits considerably higher than the typical loan and credit products available to this customer segment, with interest rates starting at 0%. Debite’s long-term ambition is to become a comprehensive banking and financial management solution for underserved early-stage businesses.
Debite will initially offer two main products in the UK – Save & Spend Loans and Boosted Debite Card.
The company has ambitious hiring plans with more than 20 new hires across sales, finance, risk, technology and marketing planned by the end of the year. To fuel this growth, Debite completed a £2.5 million ($3.1 million) pre-seed equity funding round, plus debt financing, from fintech funds and angel investors.
“We are beyond excited to be making our vision a reality with the launch of Debite,” Tayga Baltacıoğlu, co-founder and CEO of Debite, said. “So many early-stage companies start out with amazing ambitions and the potential to do incredible things, but issues with managing the heavy burden of operational costs, and a lack of attractive funding options from traditional lenders to help smooth cashflow, means that growth is often stifled. We know this market is ripe for innovation and we have huge growth plans to meet this challenge. We cannot wait to fuel the success of the next generation of business champions.”
Co-founder and CFO Andres Korin spent 12 years at J.P. Morgan where he served as vice president in a risk management role. Following this, he founded his consumer fintech start-up and advised other early-stage companies across a range of sectors.
Debite’s third co-founder is Engin Attar who will serve as head of product and growth. Attar previously worked as a management consultant at Bain advising clients in the aviation and retail sectors, overseeing projects with a total value of $1.7 billion. He also has experience building and scaling an international start-up, in addition to managing large product and growth teams.
