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Working at Kafene
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About
Kafene builds point-of-sale lease-to-own financing for retailers whose customers cannot get prime credit — furniture, appliance, electronics and tire stores in particular. A shopper leases the item and can either pay it off early or cancel and return it, which is the structural difference Neal Desai draws between lease-to-own and buy-now-pay-later debt. The company underwrites in near real time using thousands of data inputs and holds the risk on its own book rather than passing it to a third party, the same balance-sheet model Desai saw work at Octane, the power-sports lender where he had been CFO. He founded Kafene in 2019 and appeared on TechTO's Founders & Funding in April 2020 with Wes Barton of Third Prime, who led the company's Series A and later its Series B — the first American guests the show had booked. By September 2022 Kafene worked with more than 1,000 retailers and had about 100 employees.
Backers
Third Prime led both the Series A and the $18M Series B; Valar Ventures co-led an earlier Series A extension. Later rounds added debt facilities from Credit Suisse, Hudson Cove Capital Management and Trinity Capital.
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Quick answers
What does Kafene do?
It provides lease-to-own financing at retail checkout for customers who fail a prime credit check, mainly in furniture, appliances, electronics and tires. Kafene underwrites and approves in near real time and carries the risk itself.
How is lease-to-own different from buy-now-pay-later?
A lease can be cancelled. Desai has argued that because the customer can hand the item back rather than carry debt, the product holds up better in a downturn — while about 80 to 90 percent of Kafene customers end up owning what they financed.
Who backs Kafene?
Third Prime led its Series A and its $18-million Series B, and Wes Barton of Third Prime appeared alongside Neal Desai on TechTO's Founders & Funding in April 2020. Valar Ventures co-led a Series A extension, and later debt came from Credit Suisse, Hudson Cove and Trinity Capital.