Asian BNPL platform Pace announced today that it had signed an agreement to acquire competitor Rely for an undisclosed sum. They will absorb all Rely personnel, who will work to transition Rely customers to the Pace platform.
Rely was an early entrant in Singapore’s BNPL scene, debuting in 2017. The company was founded by chief executive officer Hizam Ismail, chief revenue officer Mohamed Abbas, and chief technology officer Prakash Raja in 2017. In 2020, they secured capital from Polaris, a strategic partnerships arm of Goldbell Financial Services. That allowed Rely to finance up to $74 million in BNPL transactions.
“The addition of Rely marks a key milestone achievement for Pace as we continue to strengthen our presence in Asia. With a shared purpose in democratizing financial services across the region, we look forward to delivering more compelling offerings that cater to our customers’ financial needs,” said Turochas “T” Fuad, Pace’s founder and CEO.
“The Rely team has always been driven by the desire to empower consumers to shop sustainably and responsibly. In this next phase with Pace, we are excited to offer our expertise and contribute to Pace’s broader mission of transforming financial services in the region,” added Ismail.
To date, Pace has over 5,000 points of sale across Asia and is on track to meet its goal of one million users by the end of this year. The company also aims to have an annualized gross merchandise value of $1 billion by the end of this year.
It has been a strong trajectory for Pace, given that it was founded barely one year ago. In November 2021, it announced a $40 million Series A round. It attracted new investors such as Singapore’s UOB Venture Management, Japan’s Marubeni Ventures, South Korea’s Atinum Partners, and Taiwan’s AppWorks. A series of Japanese and Indonesian family offices were also recruited. A series of existing investors also participated – Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia, Alpha JWC, and Genesis Alternative Ventures.