Square and Afterpay, Zip and Quadpay...The BNPL sector is piping hot.
Background: Splitit is yet another buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform that, surprise surprise, lets you pay in instalments. But it's a lil different to the BNPLs we're used to. Unlike Zip, Splitit lets you use your existing credit card to pay. And, unlike Afterpay, Splitit lends you the full purchase amount at the checkout.
What happened: It's worth around $280 million, and they've been growing pretty rapidly. In fact, they've just partnered with Tabby - the leading BNPL in the Middle East - which supports more than 2,000 big-name merchants like Ikea, SHEIN and Adidas.
What else: Splitit's merchant sales volumes climbed 94% to a huge $236 million, and gross revenue was up 80% to $7.5 million. And it's come at a time when the BNPL sector is seeing a tonne of mergers and acquisitions.
Each industry has its own lifecycle. It starts with the 'introduction' phase, where competitors start to pop up everywhere to take advantage of hot demand. BNPL was there, but now it's starting to enter its next phase.
This is the part where businesses start to consolidate to produce the strongest players - aka survival of the fittest. We saw:
Some day, we'll hit decline. Like where credit cards are right now. But for now, because we're seeing consolidation in the industry, this could be a sign that the BNPL industry lifecycle is maturing.
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