French Startup BNPL Firm Alma Raises $239M in Series C

French buy now, pay later (BNPL) startup Alma is preparing to expand across Europe after wrapping up a 210 million euro ($239 million) Series C funding round.

According to multiple published reports Friday (Feb. 11), the company will use the new financing to help fuel its expansion plans this year. The company says it wants to open new markets, particularly in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Ireland and Austria.

The company also wants to scale its product suite, especially its consumer-focused payment application, and build up existing products, like its pay in up to 12 months and B2B payments.

Read more: French BNPL Startup Alma Notches $59.4 In Million Series B Funding

Paris-based Alma says more than 6,000 merchants from a range of industries use its platform, with transaction volumes exceeding 1 billion euros a year.

“We are creating the most trusted BNPL platform to swing the balance in favor of merchants and consumers,” said Louis Chatriot, Alma’s chief executive and co-founder.

“We want to be part of consumers’ daily lives and help them shop better, not just more. We strive to be an efficient and sane alternative to traditional consumer credit. It’s equally important for us to improve our merchants’ economics by bringing them new customers in a balanced relationship quite opposite to what we see from large Internet platforms.”

Launched five years ago by Chatriot — a former Stripe executive — and Guillaume Desloges, Alma lets shoppers pay for purchases in four installments while giving merchants full payment at the time of purchase. The platform has become is popular with merchants because Alma takes on 100% of the potential risk.

Also read: New Funding Could Value Klarna at $60B

In January of last year, Alma raised 49 million euros ($59.4 million) in Series B funding round, as well as a credit line of $25.5 million (21 million euros) to finance merchant payments.

The latest funding round came one day after reports that Swedish BNPL company Klarna was weighing a new funding round that would make it the most valuable startup in Europe, valued between $50 billion to $60 billion.