It’s been over a decade since we set up Kriya, and 2024 continues to show that there’s still a big opportunity to learn and develop new products against a changing economic backdrop. In many ways we’re still early in the story for Fintech and how technology is completely changing the way we think about financial services.

Since we launched, our purpose has been to remove the financial friction from accessing credit and payments for businesses and their buyers. From developing credit products like digital invoice finance, business loans to B2B payments, we’ve kept business flowing brilliantly for many thousands of customers. 

Let’s take a look back at the year that was, plus what’s ahead for Kriya and the broader B2B fintech space.

B2B PayLater adoption rocketed in 2024

Demand for B2B PayLater has continued to escalate, with the global Buy Now, Pay Later market now forecast to grow from $334Bn to $687Bn by 2028. We’ve seen it in our numbers too, with an impressive 300% CAGR in PayLater volume.

Flexible payment terms are turbocharging the revenues of eCommerce businesses. A great example is B2B marketplace Nivoda (who recently raised their Series C), where we’re seeing top-line sales volume grow 80% per year and PayLater options make up over 50% share of their checkout.

In the traditional enterprise space, retailers like Halfords are seeing fantastic results too from modernising their B2B payments, across online and in-store sales channels. Each month, thousands of new buyers apply for PayLater, get an instant spending limit, and typically spend 5x more per order when using credit. B2B commerce is complex and multichannel, and we passed another major milestone with Halfords being our first physical retail store offering.

Such is the demand for flexible B2B payment terms, that we also partnered with Stripe to bring their UK merchants access to Kriya PayLater seamlessly through their existing Stripe checkout. 

Even though the market for B2B PayLater is still new, it’s motivating to see such clear evidence for the value it brings merchants and their buyers.

Kriya has saved business buyers £14 Million in interest

I won’t sugarcoat what has been a hard year for many businesses we’ve been working with. Rising interest rates, lower availability of funding, and tighter credit conditions have had an impact on businesses large and small. 

These tough times demand prudence and innovation. Companies had to be resilient and focus on sustainable growth, managing risk and building robust unit economics. Given this economic backdrop, it’s rewarding to be able to help both merchants and buyers to secure the cash flow they need to prosper

Since we launched our embedded finance products, we’ve been able to increase the number of business buyers we lend to by 12x.

Buyers that choose to PayLater with Kriya get instant access to interest-free credit. And considering the alternative is eating up their own working capital or securing a business loan with a brutal APR, it’s no surprise to me that our customers’ buyers are embracing PayLater instead. We estimate we’ve saved these business buyers more than £14 million in interest fees this way.

Fintech collaborations will shake up the industry

The UK has a world-class finance sector, further bolstered by the government’s recent declaration that fintech is central to its growth ambitions. 

One area to watch in 2025 is deeper collaboration and consolidation between fintechs and digital banks. It makes a lot of sense to combine fintech’s front-end capabilities of technology and distribution with banking’s access to licensing and funding at lower cost of capital. Personally, I think this will define the future of banking, outcompeting legacy players that can’t keep up.

Another space for collaboration is credit fintechs becoming more tightly integrated into the digital commerce stack. For B2B to truly match the seamlessness of the consumer experience, expect to see more finance tools embedded into the core platforms for B2B commerce. Whether embedded payments for eCommerce software, or PayLater options built into the checkout experiences of other Payment Service Providers (PSPs), fintech partnerships will massively unlock access to B2B credit.

Final thoughts: Building resilience together

2024 has been a defining year, not just for Kriya but for the fintech industry as a whole. 

As we enter 2025, we remain committed to innovating, supporting our partners, and helping merchants and buyers to thrive amidst the inevitable change and challenges the year ahead brings.

Our roadmap prioritises seamless integration with eCommerce and PSPs. Seeing the value our Stripe integration drives for our merchants, we’ll be doubling-down on these partnerships.

We’ll also be enhancing buyer and merchant tools. Merchants will benefit from better buyer onboarding functionality, deeper risk analytics and fraud detection to combat the rise of bad actors. While our buyer portal will provide a one-stop-shop for managing orders, payments and spending limits, as well as discovering more financial products.

Together, we’re excited to build the future of B2B payments - one milestone at a time.