Shortly after Arad Levertov moved to the U.S., he did perhaps the most American thing one could do: go to Costco and get asked by the cashier at the checkout line if he wanted to apply for a credit card. 

He did. His application was immediately declined. The experience was, understandably, awkward – for him, the cashier, and everyone in line behind them.

The gaffe led him to cofound Westwood-based Sunbit, a financial technology company that recently secured a $355 million debt warehousing facility, it announced in early November. The move was led by finance giants like J.P. Morgan, Mizuho Bank Ltd. and Waterfall Asset Management. The move comes after Sunbit’s $310 million debt warehouse facility in January, which was led by Citi and Ares Management.

“Our decision to stay focused on consumer benefits and experience, coupled with operational discipline, has strategically positioned Sunbit to deliver the right results, at the right time,” James Paris, the chief capital officer at Sunbit, said in a statement.

Sunbit was founded in 2015 by Levertov, Tal Riesenfeld, Ornit Maizel, and Tamir Hazan. The company quickly went on to raise more than $1 billion in funding and rise alongside startup peers Klarna and Afterpay.

Sunbit is part of the slew of buy-now-pay-later fintech companies venture firms have become enamored with in the last five years. In 2022, buy-now-pay-later startups raised $28.6 billion in funding – more than double what that category raised every other year between 2015 and 2024 combined. 

Sunbit operates in two major ways: one is the credit card, which does not come with fees – right now, there are around 110,000 people with Sunbit cards. It also has point-of-sale lending options available at multiple stores and online retailers, including 50% of auto dealerships. The company is also the second-largest lender when it comes to allowing dental patients to pay off procedures and treatments. 

Consumers can go to Sunbit’s web portal to look for eyewear stores, veterinarians, bridal salons and automotive shops that accept Sunbit’s buy-now-pay-later technology – in fact, in-person shopping is how Sunbit has differentiated itself from the likes of other buy-now-pay-later giants.

“Consumers are used to pay-over-time options online, but the online space is undifferentiated in many ways and in person solutions are few and far between. Sunbit focuses on in-person transactions, bringing the ease of online pay over time to the point of sale,” Levertov said.

In September, Sunbit expanded its platform with its new partnership with Stripe, allowing merchants that use Stripe to also make Sunbit buy-now-pay-later technology available to customers. The partnership is the largest of Sunbit’s more-than-15 fintech collaborations.