British financial technology firm Zilch reported its first monthly profit on Tuesday, marking a key milestone for the company as it looks toward an eventual initial public offering.

In a business update, Zilch, which competes with companies like Klarna and Block In the buy now, pay later space, it said it turned an operating profit in July 2024, reaching profitability within four years of its founding date, faster than other major consumer fintechs that also managed to break even.

Competitors Starling and Monzo, meanwhile, took more than three and four years to turn a profit, respectively. Others have managed to achieve profitability more quickly. Digital banking startup Revolut, for example, broke even for the first time just two years after its launch.

Zilch also said it surpassed £100 million ($130 million) in annual revenue run rate, doubling the run rate it reported last year.

Philip Belamant, CEO and co-founder of Zilch, told CNBC on Tuesday that despite the current high-interest rate environment, the company was able to achieve profitability by growing its business rather than cutting back as other fintechs have done.

“If you think about the last two and a half to three years, a lot of venture-backed companies, especially high-growth fintech companies, had to cut back to get to profitability. And some of them actually cut back so much that they went broke along the way,” Belamant said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

“It hasn’t been easy. And in the case of Zilch, we took a different approach. We looked at the situation and said: we’re going to grow until we become profitable,” Belamant added.

Separately on Tuesday, Zilch announced the appointment of former Aviva CEO Mark Wilson to its board of directors. Wilson, who was appointed as a non-executive director, said he was “excited” to join the company at a critical time and “help Zilch continue to set its path to sustainable success as a category leader.”

In June, Zilch CEO Belamant told CNBC that he wants to take the company public in the next 12 to 24 months. That same month, the company announced it had raised $125 million in seed debt financing from Deutsche Bank.

The deal, which gives Zilch the option to borrow up to $315 million from Deutsche Bank and other banks, is expected to help the company triple its overall sales volumes in the coming years, the firm said.

Klarna, which Zilch competes with in the UK, is also planning a medium-term IPO; its chief executive, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, previously told CNBC that it would not be “impossible” for the company to go public this year.