• Arc Technologies now counts more than $100 billion in committed capital on its venture lending platform.
• Arc Technologies has closed more than 350 transactions since it was founded in 2021.
• Last year’s Silicon Valley Bank crisis launched Arc Technologies into a period of growth, with more startups seeking alternative capital sources.

Arc Technologies revealed through an exclusive interview with TechCrunch today that it now has more than $100 billion in committed capital on its lending platform.

Founded in 2021, Arc has raised $181 in funding across three rounds of funding– including a $20 million Series A round the company landed in August of 2022. The California-based company’s venture debt marketplace offers startups a capital alternative to equity funds.

Arc’s capital markets debt marketplace enables startups to onboard in as little as 10 minutes and receive debt terms for up to $250 million from the network of participating lenders. After underwriting each borrower using historical financial data, the company pre-qualifies borrowers and matches them to a lender within five days.

Notably, Arc’s rise in committed capital comes after the fall of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last year, when many startups found themselves scrambling to find sources of alternative capital so that they could meet day-to-day business requirements and make payroll.

The SVB crisis served as a growth period for the company. “In 2023, Arc onboarded more than 4,000 new users, while the deposits managed through our platform grew by a factor of more than 12x,” said company CEO Don Muir. “Specific to capital, we have completed more than 350 transactions and have made available $100B+ in AUM to deploy through our lending partners.”

In the future, Arc plans to build out more banking products into its platform, the first of which can be expected later this year.

Photo by Mathias Reding

• Affirm has extended its partnership with Walmart to offer buy now, pay later (BNPL) tools at self-checkout stands.
• Shoppers can use Affirm to pay for non-grocery purchases ranging from $144 to $4,000 in monthly installments.
• Affirm also recently landed partnerships with Amazon and Google.

BNPL heavyweight Affirm ended 2023 announcing an expansion of a partnership with one of its major customers. The California-based company announced that Walmart will use its buy now, pay later (BNPL) technology at select self-checkout locations.

Reuters reported late last year that more than 4,500 Walmart stores in the U.S. will offer Affirm’s BNPL as an option to shoppers whose non-grocery purchases range between $144 to $4,000. Consumers will have the option to pay back their purchases in monthly installments spanning three months to 24 months.

To keep things simple at the point-of-sale kiosks, the BNPL onboarding process will take place on the user’s phone. Shoppers that opt to use BNPL to pay for their purchase will need to use their phone to log into Affirm’s mobile app or website and enter credentials, including the last four digits of their social security number. Once Affirm approves the customer, they will receive a barcode on their phone that they scan at the physical self-checkout register to complete the sale.

Walmart, which ended its layaway program in 2020, has offered Affirm’s BNPL technology to U.S. shoppers since 2019 at in-person checkout locations. Expanding the alternative payment option to the self-checkout and moving the onboarding process to the customer’s own mobile device reduces the friction that may occur when shoppers onboard to BNPL with the help of a cashier. This may result in an increased use of Affirm’s BNPL at Walmart’s point-of-sale.

The expansion of its collaboration with Walmart is the latest in a string of major partnerships for Affirm. Amazon tapped Affirm for Amazon Pay option in June of last year, and five months later, the ecommerce giant launched Affirm’s BNPL as a payment option for small businesses. Additionally, last month, Google announced it is using Affirm and its competitor Zip to provide BNPL options for shoppers using Google Pay.

Affirm is one of a handful of Walmart’s existing financial services partners. The retailer is also teamed up with Capital One, which offers a rewards credit card; Western Union, Ria, and MoneyGram for money transfer services; and Green Dot for its prepaid card. Interestingly, Walmart has been in the process of building its own neobank, One, since 2022, and many of One’s offerings compete with those of Walmart’s current partners.

Photo by Fabio Bracht on Unsplash

• Headless checkout company Bold Commerce launched a dynamic payment feature for Bold Commerce.
• The feature allows merchants to show only the payment options relevant to therm.
• Bold Commerce has raised $44 million and is headquartered in Canada.

Headless checkout company Bold Commerce announced the launch of its dynamic payment feature for its Bold Checkout product this week.

Bold Checkout is the company’s tailored checkout solution that aims to help businesses increase conversion, lifetime value, and average order value, ultimately driving more revenue. The newly launched dynamic payment feature offers companies the ability to expand and manage multiple different payment options, including digital wallets, buy now, pay later (BNPL) and account-to-account payments. By offering a wider range of payment methods, brands can reach more consumers and convert shoppers into buyers.

The dynamic payment feature complements Bold Checkout’s Payment Booster, which helps brands deliver payment options tailored for individual shoppers based on their profiles, the device they’re using, and past purchasing behavior. Bold Checkout harnesses extensive data to enable brands to deliver hyper-personalized experiences to their customers. By displaying only the payment methods pertinent to each individual, it ensures a tailored approach, preventing information overload by streamlining the available options at checkout.

“The only way to offer shoppers flexibility in payment methods–without going overboard on options–is to carefully curate and personalize options to them based on who they are, how they shop and where they’re shopping from,” said Bold Commerce CEO Peter Karpas. “The ability to personalize payments for individual shoppers rounds out a fully tailored checkout experience powered by Bold–from when shoppers enter the checkout to payment to even post-purchase. This not only increases conversion for brands, but increases average order value and customer lifetime value as well.”

Bold Commerce was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Canada. Earlier this year, the company teamed up with PayPal to offer the payment technology among its options at checkout. And last month, Bold Commerce partnered with open banking technology company Link Money to help its merchant clients offer more payment options in the checkout experience for their end customers.

Bold Commerce has raised $44 million and has been named to Deloitte’s Tech Fast 50, E&Y’s Entrepreneur of the Year, and CBInsights’ Retail Tech 100.

Photo by Steve Harvey on Unsplash