One year after acquiring buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform Quadpay — and creating a billion-dollar company in the process — Australian payment technology company Zip says it is merging the two brands into one.
“Under one global identity, Zip is investing deeply to escalate its brand awareness across 12 markets and five continents,” the company said in a Thursday (July 22) news release emailed to PYMNTS. “Customers in the U.S. can continue to split their purchases into four interest-free installments, making use of the same flexible payment options, now with a bold new look.”
Zip Co-Founder and CEO Larry Diamond said the company has experienced “exceptionally strong” growth in the U.S. since acquiring Quadpay. Zip says its U.S. business will leverage a $400 million investment to fuel brand recognition in America, and “will bring together 300+ top finance technology product experts and over 200 technical resources to drive more innovative global efficiencies to the retail industry.”
The company’s new brand, complete with a new logo, will roll out around the world beginning in the middle of August.
Zip says it now has a presence in 12 countries, working with more than 51,000 merchants and serving more than 7.3 million customers who use the service to pay for purchases in installments.
Earlier this year, Zip became a BigCommerce Elite Partner, offering its installment payment services to an even larger network of merchants.
BNPL has mushroomed in popularity in the past few years, thanks in part to “credit invisible” consumers, as PYMNTS research has found.
These consumers — typically shut out of the credit card market and reliant on debit cards — are three times more likely to use BNPL than other consumers. More than three-quarters of these consumers see BNPL as a way to improve their ability to buy what they want without overspending, and nearly half — 46 percent — say the service makes it possible for them to purchase things they couldn’t have afforded otherwise.
