- Barcelona’s ID Finance raised €545 million through a mix of debt and equity.
- While the specific split is undisclosed, the equity raise is intended to drive Plazo’s growth in Spain, while i80 Group’s asset-based financing will expand its credit portfolio.
- Plazo‘s growth is backed by Spice Expeditions, WashU, Kingsway Capital, and i80 Group.
In 2012, two former Deutsche Bank bankers set up an online lending business. Today, their Barcelona-based company, ID Finance, raised €545 million in debt and equity to shift from short-term lending to a buy-now, pay-later service.
The commitments came from Spice Expeditions, WashU, Kingsway Capital, and i80 Group, the latter having provided asset-based financing secured by the lender’s receivables.
Speaking to Tech Funding News, an ID Finance spokesperson declined to comment on specific valuation figures attached to individual rounds or the 2023 Kingsway convertible cap, but highlighted that the business reported €243 million in revenue in 2025 and is profitable, making the raise a strong vote of confidence in its operations.
ID Finance considers this one of the biggest funding rounds ever obtained by a Spanish fintech in recent times, beating the €410 million seQura raised in November 2024, the previous record.
From a lending startup in 2012 to a Barcelona-based app
ID Finance is run by co-founders Boris Batine, CEO, and Alexander Dunaev, COO. Prior to funding the startup in 206 in Barcelona, Batine worked at Deutsche Bank, Renaissance Capital, and the Royal Bank of Scotland, while Dunaev led structured products for Central and Eastern Europe at Deutsche Bank
According to the company, its €21 million funding facility, obtained from the German asset manager nordIX, supports its Spanish lending platform, which has more than 3.7 million registered users and issued over €190 million in loans during the first half of 2026, generating about €100 million in revenue.
ID Finance describes its primary product as small, short-term loans, and group revenue amounted to €243 million in 2025. The platform Plazo, launched in 2021, has more than 400,000 users, although this number may be calculated differently.
ID Finance has financed its loan portfolio through debt. In March 2023, Kingsway Capital led a €30 million round that required Spanish government approval and was structured as a convertible loan with a €235 million valuation cap.
ID Finance says i80 provided $150 million in debt financing in February 2024, the largest amount i80 has ever furnished. In March 2026, ID Finance Spain increased its eurobond by €20 million, making the total amount €60 million. The notes carry an annual interest rate of 12% and come due in September 2028.
Who is behind the money
Marc Helwani, formerly a banker at Goldman Sachs, set up i80 in 2016. As an SEC-registered credit investor, i80 has funded moneyLion, Properly, and Capchase.
“ID Finance has done a tremendous job of managing risk while growing the portfolio. We’re delighted to deepen our relationship and increase the scale of the asset-based financing that will support Plazo’s next phase of growth as it continues to modernise consumer credit in Europe,” said Peter Frank, managing director at i80.
Tamir Saeed, managing partner at Kingsway Capital, an asset manager based in London that manages about $3.4 billion, added: “It has been a pleasure to partner with ID Finance over the last few years, supporting their mission to provide access to financial services to all consumers in Spain and Mexico. We are pleased to continue investing in this exciting next phase of ID Finance’s journey, exemplified by the high growth and disruptive potential of new products like Plazo and Turron.”
According to ID Finance, Plazo achieved bottom-line profitability in 2025, with revenue up 300%. An ID Finance spokesperson confirmed the company is fully operationally profitable in 2026 and expects the Plazo credit portfolio to reach around €200 million.
“This investment is a strong vote of confidence in Plazo and in the model we’ve built to modernise consumer credit in Spain. Plazo tripled its portfolio in 2025 and reached profitability, proving that responsible, AI-driven underwriting and a genuinely better product experience can scale together,” stated Dunaev.
Turrón, a 300% target, and a November 20 deadline
Plazo introduced Turrón in July 2026, which provides an e-money account, a debit card, and a ‘buy now, pay later’ option that divides eligible purchases into interest-free instalments at partner merchants, both online and in physical shops, without charging any maintenance fee or subscription, as ID Finance states.
ID Finance intends to attract customers through its current Plazo user base rather than through merchant checkouts. The company anticipates Plazo will grow by 300% in 2026, although it has not provided any supporting figures.
The competitors are just as well funded. SeQura, which is based in Barcelona, achieved annual revenues of €100 million after raising €410 million. Klarna had its initial public offering in New York in September 2025 at a valuation of $15.1 billion and has obtained €1.4 billion in funding from Santander.
Spanish banks are also involved. For instance, CaixaBank lets its customers split up Apple Pay payments. ResearchAndMarkets forecasts that Spain’s buy now, pay later sector will reach $11.75 billion in 2026, a 22% increase, and grow 17.9% annually through 2031. According to our report on Barcelona startups to watch, Spanish startups raised €3.1 billion in venture capital in 2025, with half of the total deals based in Barcelona.
It now has to deliver the growth expected from €545 million in investment, based on its 400,000 users and €137 million loan book, particularly in view of increasing regulatory oversight. However, it is not yet clear how much of that capital consists of debt, which will have to be repaid from a loan book that has only recently become profitable.
