[Edaily Marketin YunJi Kim Reporter] Mr. A, a working professional living in London, England, purchases a mobile gift card worth 200 pounds (approximately 370,000 won) to do his grocery shopping at a large supermarket. If 3% of the purchase amount is credited as cashback, he receives 6 pounds back. Instead of using this money for his next shopping trip, Mr. A applies it toward paying down the principal on his mortgage. Simply by grocery shopping as usual, the amount of the loan they owe has effectively been reduced by 6 pounds.

In the UK, fintech startups that allow consumers to use rewards accumulated through everyday spending to pay down their mortgages are attracting attention from investors. The model works by linking the cashback earned from each shopping trip to the repayment of the loan principal, thereby reducing the interest burden. It is gaining attention as a new financial service because it allows consumers to make additional loan payments through their regular spending habits without having to set aside a separate lump sum.

According to industry sources on the 27th, the UK fintech startup Sprive recently raised $10 million (approximately 14 billion won) in a Series A funding round. Existing investors—Channel 4 Ventures, Ascension, and Velocity EIS Technology Fund—participated in the follow-on investment, while Active Partners, WealthClub, and Rank Ventures joined as new investors. With this investment, Spryve’s total funding raised has exceeded $15 million (approximately 20.5 billion won).

Sprive is a fintech company co-founded in 2019 by former Goldman Sachs employees. The two founders developed a service that allows consumers with mortgages to pay off their loans faster by utilizing small amounts of spare cash from their daily lives, in addition to making their regular monthly principal and interest payments.

Here’s how it works. When a user purchases mobile gift cards from partner retailers—such as Tesco and other supermarket chains—through the Spryve app, a certain percentage of the purchase amount is credited as cashback. Users can then use that shopping card to make purchases at both online and offline stores, and the accumulated cashback can be applied toward mortgage principal payments via the app. This means that even when spending the same amount as usual, a portion of those funds can be used to make additional loan payments. The company explains that even if the additional repayment amount isn’t large at first, repeating this over the long term can help shorten the loan repayment period.

Venture capitalists noted that, as the interest burden on UK mortgage borrowers increases, Sprive has presented a new solution that reduces the burden of loan repayment by leveraging everyday spending. The analysis suggests that as interest rate hikes increase the principal and interest payments due each month, consumer demand for ways to reduce the loan principal—even slightly—is growing. In particular, since some borrowers are extending their loan terms to lower monthly payments, the ability to make additional loan payments through everyday shopping without having to set aside a separate lump sum is cited as a key factor attracting users.

As a result, Sprive’s user base and revenue are growing rapidly. Sprive currently has approximately 567,000 users, whose combined mortgage debt totals 42 billion pounds (approximately 79 trillion won). The cumulative principal repaid by users through the app has reached 26 million pounds. The company estimates that this will save users over 300 million pounds in interest payments in the future.

Changes are also evident in terms of profitability. According to the company, Sprive’s revenue has increased more than 25-fold since January of last year, and the annualized transaction volume processed through the app has grown 35-fold over the same period to 328 million pounds. Current annualized revenue has surpassed 18 million pounds, and the company recently achieved a cash-flow-based profit.

Meanwhile, Sprive plans to use this investment to expand its consumer reach and strengthen services that combine mortgage repayments with refinancing.