Twitter co-founder’s payment firm buys BNPL service Afterpay in $29b deal

Details:

• The deal will open Square’s huge US customer base to Afterpay’s interest-free installment payments.
• Afterpay founders Anthony Eisen and Nick Molnar will get roughly A$2.5 billion (US$1.8 billion) each, while China’s Tencent will receive A$1.7 billion (over US$1.2 billion) for its stake in the Melbourne-headquartered firm.

Dive deeper:

• According to a study, a BNPL boom has taken Singapore by storm, with around 19% of the city-state’s population having used such services. The report also found that about 30% of Singaporeans between the ages of 25 and 34 had “most likely” given the payments system a try.
• However, the lack of credit checks makes the system susceptible to fraud, according to critics quoted in the Reuters report.

Currency converted from US Dollars to Australian Dollars: US$1 – A$1.36