Paylead investment from Open CNP & Side Capital

PayLead completes a Serie A to shake up the banking data industry

The French start-up PayLead, founded in 2016, just concluded a €6 million A series. For this round, the Open CNP fund (an expert in Fintech and early investor in Lydia, October and Alan), historic fund Side Capital and expert “Business Angels”, have joined forces. Amongst these “Business Angels”, Hugues Le Bret, founder of Compte Nickel, enters the strategic committee of PayLead to bring his invaluable expertise to the fast-growing start-up.

PayLead’s technology enables banks, Fintech companies, merchants, and retailers to create loyalty programmes based on the analysis of customers’ banking data: the account-linked offer. These programmes unlock a cashback for customers, based on their online and offline purchases. The customer experience is extremely simple and seamless, since PayLead automatically identifies eligible transactions. PayLead relies on the DSP2 directive to analyse, with users’ consent, the purchasing and spending habits of its consumers, to allow brands to provide them with personalised offers, while guaranteeing their anonymity.

With the arrival of new players in the world of payment (GAFA, new banks, etc.), the industry is undergoing major changes and pressure is mounting on traditional actors. “In the future, banks will allocate more means to analyse the wealth and depth of their own data than they do when buying leads from cookie manufacturers”, explains Hugues Le Bret, who sees PayLead as a true means of satisfaction for consumers. And the gold rush is accelerating. “In 2019, we launched 5 loyalty programs with BNPP, Arkéa, Groupama or Poulpeo (one of the leaders in online cashback). We have also created the largest network of retailers for this type of programme, with more than 8,500 points of sale, in less than a year! And this is only the beginning, the market will grow in France and Europe very quickly”, says Charles de Gastines.

“Thanks to an ambitious team, Paylead has created a unique banking data analysis technology that benefits both banks and retailers, and the end customer. We are pleased to support the growth of this Fintech through our Open CNP Corporate Venture Fund”, comments Eric Lasaygues, Director of Partnerships Development at CNP Assurances, who also joins Paylead’s strategic committee.

Today, being the only B to B to C player specialising in this sector, PayLead enjoys a leading position in this market in Europe. “With these new funds, we will accelerate the delivery of numerous functionalities to enrich our product and continue to make a real difference for our clients and prospects. The loyalty through payment market will be conquered by a technology player who can aggregate the largest amount of customer data, while proving the incremental revenue to merchants. We are convinced that PayLead can meet this challenge,” concludes Jacquelin Becheau La Fonta, COO.