Australia’s Afterpay to expand into Asia with EmpatKali acquisition

Australian fintech firm Afterpay has announced its plans to expand its services to at least four continents, including Asia, to capitalize on the online shopping surge brought by Covid-19.

The plan would involve the acquisition of Singapore-based but Indonesia-focused buy-now-pay-later service EmpatKali, Reuters reported.

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Founded in 2018, EmpatKali provides its users with installment-based payment solutions for both online and offline transactions. “They have got an established, albeit very early-stage position in Indonesia,” Afterpay CEO Anthony Eisen told the publication.

According to Bain, Google, and Temasek’s 2019 e-Conomy SEA report, Indonesia’s internet economy has more than quadrupled in size since 2015 and is estimated to reach US$130 billion by 2025.

For Southeast Asia overall, the report estimated the region’s internet economy to breach US$100 billion by the end of 2019. Ecommerce emerged as Southeast Asia’s biggest and fastest-growing sector last year, which was then valued at around US$38 billion.

In addition to Asia, Afterpay also announced its formal launch in Canada, as well as its plans to enter Spain, France, Italy, and possibly Portugal and Germany.

To help with its European expansion, the company announced earlier this week that it would acquire its Spain-based peer Pagantis. “Our momentum to date has given us the confidence to expedite our expansion into new global regions,” Eisen said in a previous statement.

The development came as Afterpay said it had doubled its revenue to A$519.2 million for the 2020 financial year, compared to the A$251.6 million it recorded in the same year-ago period. The company also cut its losses by half to A$22.9 million, from its A$43.8 million loss last financial year.

This growth has pushed Afterpay into becoming one of Australia’s 20 most valuable stocks, having climbed more than 10x since March, according to the Reuters report.