Qomodo Raises $14.1 Million to Offer BNPL to Italian Brick-and-Mortar Merchants

Milan-based Qomodo has raised 13.5 million euros (about $14.1 million) in a Series A funding round to continue developing solutions like buy now, pay later (BNPL) and SmartPOS for Italian merchants.

The company said in a Tuesday (Jan. 21) post on LinkedIn that in its first year it quintupled the number of offline merchants it serves, welcomed tens of thousands of new customers and managed millions of euros in transactions. It also launched its SmartPOS, which fully manages merchants’ transactions.

Qomodo’s latest funding round was led by RTP Global and LMDV Capital, per the post.

“This is just the beginning — Qomodo is reshaping the future of payments for businesses across Italy,” LMDV Capital said in a Tuesday post on LinkedIn.

RTP Global said in a blog post on its website that Qomodo offers brick-and-mortar retailersaccess to the BNPL options and faster ways to pay that are commonly available for online shopping.

Qomodo’s “all-in-one” smart payment solution that offers these options to traditional retailers is especially important in an economy like Italy, where small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) account for 80% of employment, the post said.

Together with its BNPL solution, the company offers brick-and-mortar merchants mobile in-store payment and pay-by-link offerings, according to the post.

Qomodo now serves 2,500 SMBs, per the post.

“There’s a huge opportunity, given Italy’s significant domestic market and standing as the ‘nation of SMBs,’ to revolutionize and enhance in-store shopping experiences — for both retailers and consumers,” RTP Global Vice President Louis Dussart said in the release.

Eighty-three percent of Italian adults possess debit card, a figure that is relatively lowcompared to other developed nations and suggests a preference for cash transactions or potential barriers to accessing financial services, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report, “How the World Does Digital.”

The report also found that almost all Italian adults owned smartphones by 2022, 88% have access to high-speed broadband, nearly all have access to 4G, 40% have access to 5G, and 68% engage weekly with messaging applications.

In terms of BNPL adoption, the report found that 0.9% of Italian adults said BNPL was the payment method used in their last online purchase.