Zilch

Zilch is an operating company, not an investment firm, so it does not have a CIO or investment committee in the traditional sense. Strategic and capital-allocation decisions are driven by CEO and Co-Founder Philip Belamant alongside CFO Hugh Courtney, who led the £100 million securitisation deal with Deutsche Bank announced in June 2024 (per Zilch, June 2024). The company has disclosed an intention to pursue an IPO, which would shift governance toward a public-company board structure.

Zilch is a consumer fintech, not a fund, so it does not source investment deals. Its growth comes from direct customer acquisition — the firm reported adding over 100,000 new customers per month as of June 2024 — and from signing retail partners onto its ad-subsidised payments network (per Zilch, June 2024). Merchants pay Zilch to access first-party data on high-intent shoppers, which funds the rewards Zilch pays to consumers.

Zilch is a venture-backed operating company, not a family office. It has raised external capital, including a £100 million securitised debt facility from Deutsche Bank in 2024 to fuel expansion, and the company has publicly stated it is working toward an IPO (per Zilch, June 2024). It is regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority and produces its own revenue rather than managing a single family's wealth.

Zilch does not participate in fund commitments or direct investment deals. It is a consumer payments and credit platform, not an allocator. Its corporate activity consists of raising debt and equity for its own balance sheet — evidenced by the Deutsche Bank securitisation deal — rather than deploying capital into third-party funds or companies.

Zilch does not target investment stages. As an operator, its focus is on scaling its own product lifecycle: it launched in 2020, reached 4 million customers within 44 months, introduced its proprietary ad-subsidised payments network in 2023, and secured debt financing in 2024 ahead of a planned IPO (per Zilch, June 2024). Growth capital has been raised to expand its lending book and product suite.

Zilch has been regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority since April 2020, having obtained its consumer credit licence through the FCA Regulatory Sandbox Programme (per Zilch, June 2024). It also reached a reporting agreement with major UK credit reference agencies in January 2023, enabling customers to build credit histories using interest-free instalment payments.

Zilch's CFO Hugh Courtney stated in June 2024 that the Deutsche Bank securitisation represents a major milestone as the company works toward an IPO in the future, setting an initial benchmark for pricing public debt issuance (per Zilch, June 2024). No exchange or timeline has been specified, but the disclosure signals a near-to-medium-term public-markets ambition.