Float, the South African payments platform that lets shoppers split credit card purchases into interest-free instalments, has entered the United Kingdom, using a government scheme designed to lure high-growth international founders as an alternative to traditional investor visas.
The launch was facilitated by the UK’s Global Entrepreneur Programme (GEP), a Department for Business and Trade initiative that connects overseas entrepreneurs with mentorship, networks and endorsements needed to secure an Innovator Founder visa. The programme has become an important tool as Britain seeks to position itself as a destination for fast-growing financial technology companies without the rigid capital or job-creation requirements of older visa routes.
Float’s arrival in the UK is a test case for both the company and the GEP. The fintech, founded in 2021, has built a merchant-funded platform that lets consumers pay for purchases in up to 24 monthly instalments using the existing credit line on their Visa or Mastercard. No new credit is issued, no additional sign-up or app download is required, and shoppers continue to earn their card’s loyalty points. The company generates revenue entirely from merchant fees.
In South Africa, the model has lifted average order values by about 134 per cent across more than 2,200 retail partners, including Samsung, iStore, The North Face and Cycle Lab, according to the company’s global data. Chief executive Alex Forsyth-Thompson argues that Float solves a problem of time, not credit.
“South Africa’s 5.5mn credit cardholders carry around R200bn in outstanding balances, yet there is over R125bn sitting unutilised on their cards,” Forsyth-Thompson said in an interview. “Because there’s a 30–55-day repayment window before interest applies, many shoppers routinely downsize baskets, defer purchases, or abandon checkout — not because they lack credit, but because the repayment window forces a trade-off between what they want and what is manageable. These shoppers don’t need more credit. They just need more time.”
The UK market presents that same mismatch at a far larger scale. Across roughly 55mn credit cards, consumers are sitting on an estimated £250bn in unused available credit. Nearly half of all credit card accounts incur interest in any given month, the Bank of England’s data suggests, meaning that for millions of households the repayment cycle, rather than the absolute credit limit, is the binding constraint on spending.
“The issue in the UK is on a far bigger scale, so it presents an enormous opportunity for us to expand and add the same value in a new market,” Forsyth-Thompson added. “We are already seeing success: merchant take-up has been significantly faster than our SA launch a few years ago, and we were recently shortlisted in the UK for the PAY360 Award for Best Consumer Payments Product and the Ecommerce Awards’ Best eCommerce Payment Solution.”
| Market Metric | United Kingdom | South Africa |
|---|---|---|
| Active Credit Cards | 55 million | 5.5 million |
| Total Unutilised Credit Limit | £250 billion | R125 billion |
| Outstanding Credit Balance | Not publicly disclosed | R200 billion |
The Global Entrepreneur Programme, which has helped more than 900 businesses establish operations in the UK, does not itself issue visas but works with the Home Office’s Innovator Founder route. Endorsing bodies, including the programme, assess business ideas for innovation, viability and scalability, providing a pathway that avoids the £200,000 minimum investment threshold that characterised the old Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa.
Float is the type of scalable, innovation-driven business that the UK’s Global Entrepreneur Programme was designed to attract, owing to its proprietary technology and its potential to increase spending for retailers without adding to consumers’ debt burdens.
Industry observers note that Float enters a crowded market. The UK is already served by a range of buy now, pay later providers such as Klarna, Clearpay and Zilch, as well as bank-led instalment offerings. Yet the company’s card-linked model is distinct: it does not require a new credit agreement with the shopper, meaning it sits outside the scope of the consumer credit rules that the government has been consulting on for the BNPL sector. The Financial Conduct Authority, however, is expected to keep such boundary cases under review as it tightens oversight of unregulated instalment products.
Float’s model leverages existing credit card infrastructure to help merchants increase basket sizes while addressing consumers’ cash-flow constraints without underwriting new loans. Its success in the UK, however, will depend on whether it can gain sufficient acceptance among card issuers and acquirers, some of whom may view the product as competing with their own instalment offerings.
The company, which has raised more than R280m (about $17m) in equity and debt from investors including Standard Bank, Remgro subsidiary Invenfin, and Platform Investment Partners, will operate its UK business from a new entity. It has already started signing up merchants, though it declined to name British brands ahead of a formal launch.
Its advance comes at a time when UK policymakers are attempting to bolster fintech investment, which fell sharply in 2024 before stabilising, and as the Home Office promotes visa routes for digital entrepreneurs. Whether a South African start-up can transplant a model forged in an emerging market into the competitive UK payments landscape will be closely watched. For now, Float is betting that the oldest problem in consumer spending — making monthly cash flow stretch — is universal enough to travel.