US-based multinational financial technology company PayPal has announced that it joined a group of investors to inject USD 15 million into Ume , a Brazilian payment service provider. As part of a collaboration between PayPal’s venture arm and an investment group which includes Globo Ventures, NFX, and Clocktower Ventures, Ume, which serves small and medium-sized merchants, is set to receive USD 15 million to advance its capabilities.

The Brazil-based startup aims to leverage the capital injection to scale its sales, marketing, and technology infrastructure, as well as to assist its expansion into additional markets. Also, the investment is set to fund the improvement of its Pix features. The current news follows Ume’s USD 20 million debt financing, with the company receiving the capital from Verde, Itaú, and other creditors. In addition, before funding Ume’s operations, PayPal Ventures focused on backing international ecommerce and artificial intelligence (AI) companies.

Ume’s expansion into BNPL services Delivering its services through Pix, Ume intends to capitalise on the increase of Buy Now, Pay Later solutions in Brazil, with the firm currently providing its consumer financing services via 6,000 businesses that reach nearly 220,000 consumers. By offering BNPL services as part of its seller collaborations, Ume underlined that 85% of purchases via the solutions were conducted by repeat consumers, as per the information detailed in the official press release. Also, using Pix enabled Ume to advance its development strategy, with the firm increasing its merchant user base and repeat customer count since integrating the system. Moreover, implementing Pix for its services is set to allow Ume to offer flexibility for payment options to consumers while equipping merchants with an additional way to support their users.

The company enables both merchants and consumers to create accounts, with businesses having to pay a fee for purchases using Ume credit while consumers mostly pay interest on instalment transactions. Representatives from Ume mentioned that developing infrastructure on the Pix rails allows their firm to offer small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) a suite of financial products that they can in turn offer to their customers. .