In its FY26 results for the year to 31 March 2026, Zilch reported revenue up 36% to £147.5m. Credit revenue grew 47% to £108.4m, nearly three quarters of the total. Advertising revenue rose 12% to £11m, "driven by new affiliate partnerships", the report says, and revenue from paid features such as membership tiers more than doubled to £6.9m.
Zilch is building that side of the business into what it calls an ad-subsidised payments network, offering brands its 970,000 yearly active customers, who spend an average of £2,500 each. The annual report says merchants pay performance-based affiliate commissions on sales made through Zilch, plus fees for premium placement. Its Intelligent Commerce platform, which we covered at launch in October 2025, promises, promises retailers visibility of "100%" of the sales journey online and in store, and Zilch says brands in its beta saw return on ad spend rise by 20 to 50%. Those are company figures, with no published method.
Money for the lending side
This week's news was about lending. On 11 November Zilch said Deutsche Bank had led £165m of additional securitisation and corporate debt facilities, taking its total facilities to £395m and its capacity to £6bn of lending a year, Financial IT reported. "Access to efficient funding is a key parameter for success," said chief executive Philip Belamant.
Zilch is considering a flotation as early as the second half of 2027, City AM reported on 9 November, with London the favoured venue but other markets still open and no banks yet appointed. "We know we need to hit our numbers," Belamant told the paper. Statutory pre-tax losses nearly tripled to £35.9m in FY26 as credit impairments rose 66%, though Zilch says it has since posted two quarters of adjusted profit. It has also agreed to buy Fjord Bank, which would give it a European banking licence, as we reported in January.
Where it meets affiliate budgets
Zilch already reaches past its own app for brands. In July it partnered with Rezolve Ai's Reward, the card-linked offers business that calls itself a Finance Media Network, to bring more UK retailers onto Intelligent Commerce. For a retailer, that puts Zilch's subsidised credit in the same budget conversation as cashback, card-linked offers and loyalty partners, all of which are paid to influence the same purchase.
Attribution is where the channels may overlap. Traditional affiliates and cashback sites typically earn commission on tracked sales. Zilch also earns affiliate commissions, but its advertising pitch extends to measuring purchases across its payments network. Brands testing it could ask how a sale is credited when a shopper also clicked through a cashback site, and whether Zilch's figures can be checked against their own data, the point impact.com's San Sareen made in arguing against relying on last click.
If Zilch heads towards a 2027 listing, its advertising business will draw closer attention from investors. Lending generates most of its revenue today, and affiliate partnerships are where its advertising growth is coming from.
