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Kafene

Lease-to-own options for furniture, appliances, electronics, and more

Kafene logo
21-100 employees
  • Fintech
  • B2C
  • B2B
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Lending
  • Machine Learning
  • SaaS
  • Consumer Goods
  • Consumer Appliances
Midtown East, New York, NY

Company mission

To empower flexible ownership solutions.

Top investors

Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

Our take

Historically, bad credit and poor purchasing power have excluded many consumers from buying higher-priced household items. Classic lenders are reluctant to offer plans to those with poor or absent credit pasts, and it can be hard for low-income households to save enough money for upfront purchasing. Kafene, founded in 2019, integrates lease-to-own agreements at point-of-purchase; opening up furniture, appliance, and electronics businesses to underserved consumers.

Lease-to-own is no new concept, but bringing this type of agreement to furniture and similar markets is relatively novel by comparison. Kafene’s toolbox – driven by custom-built technology – underwrites, approves, and enables payment in less than five minutes. Its point-of-sale nature means it does not interrupt the shopping experience and, additionally, consumers can manage existing leases through the website which encourages a positive consumer-lender relationship.

Kafene has seen substantial investment which is set to increase headcount to meet demand from merchants and consumers. Although it is only one of many buy-now-pay-later startups, the market for these platforms is huge and there is certainly room within it for Kafene to continue to grow.

Freddie headshot

Freddie

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Benefits

  • Hybrid/remote opportunities available

Company values

  • We believe in empowering people and offering opportunities for development.
  • We value strong, positive relationships in all areas: with each other and our customers.

Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)

Oct 2023

$12.6m

SERIES B

Sep 2022

$18m

SERIES B

Total funding: $77.1m

This company has top investors

Leadership

Former CFO at Octane Lending. Prior experience as a Portfolio Manager. Has worked at Summit Securities Group, Hard Eight Holdings, and Merrill Lynch.

Co-founded Atlas Holdings Group, FundElevator and Eligible Inc, and was CTO at all three.

Jobs (9)

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