Ingka Investments, the owner of IKEA stores, has announced an investment of $22.5 million in Israeli fintech company Jifiti. The deal gives Ingka Investments a minority equity stake in the point-of-sale retail financing company.
Jifiti facilitates white-labeled point-of-sale financing solutions for banks, lenders and merchants. The investment is a recognition of the added value that Jifiti brings to the industry as a whole and will contribute to IKEA Financial Services.
Ingka Investments managing director Krister Mattsson said, "Ingka Group is taking decisive steps into financial services, and a core part of our journey is to help make IKEA more affordable and accessible for our customers. This deal will further our integration of easily accessible financing solutions into the IKEA offering. Our investment in Jifiti is another exciting step for Ingka Investments as it follows our recent other financial services investment in Ikano Bank. We are confident this new investment will support us even more in becoming a life-long partner to our customers, by helping to improve their life at home and grow their businesses."
Ingka Group and Jifiti have been collaborating for many years with Jifiti facilitating IKEA Retail’s and consumer financing services. IKEA, with their local banking partners in Spain, France, Portugal and Belgium have already been offering financing in their stores via the Jifiti platform since 2019 and are now entering more countries.
IKEA aims is to have Jifiti's platform facilitating the IKEA in-store and e-commerce point-of-sale financing across markets. Ingka Group and Jifiti will collaborate to develop and extend IKEA Retail’s financial services to its 706 million annual in-store customers and 3.6 billion e-commerce visitors worldwide.
Jifiti cofounder and CEO Yaacov Martin said, "When two companies as aligned as Jifiti and Ingka Group take their partnership to the next level through investment, it signals the first of many exciting changes in the landscape of the industry. This investment will empower both our organizations to achieve our goals in the point-of-sale financing space, and fuel Jifiti’s technological and international growth. A partnership, such as ours, that serves the vision and purpose of both parties is poised for success and will have a positive impact on the BNPL industry."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 31, 2021
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