Adyen to offer merchants BNPL via Afterpay partnership

Payments giant Adyen will start offering buy now, pay later services from Afterpay to its vast number of merchants worldwide.

The ‘acquiring’ partnership builds on an existing relationship between the two fintechs from back in 2018, but takes it global, starting with the UK, France, Italy and Spain.

“We are excited to further expand our longstanding partnership with Afterpay to now include local acquiring in key markets,” said Roelant Prins, chief commercial officer at Adyen.

According to Prins, many Adyen customers like Revolution Beauty and Superdry already use Afterpay (known as Clearpay in the UK and Europe), but he expects more to join following the partnership.

“Afterpay is already a household name globally and we are proud to be able to continue to come together, leveraging both our technology and innovation to meet the needs of today’s evolving retail landscape,” Prins added.

While it’s great news for Afterpay, it doesn’t necessarily give the brand a leg-up over its rivals, as Adyen already has relationships in place with the likes of Klarna,Zip and Affirm.

Afterpay in February became entirely owned by US fintech giant Block (formerly Square) as part of a $29bn acquisition.

According to Afterpay, 24 per cent of consumers globally have now used buy now, pay later with the highest levels of adoption in Sweden, Norway, Mexico, France, the US and Denmark.

“Holiday season 2021 was the holiday for BNPL - with consumers using Afterpay to pay responsibly for their holiday gifts,” said Zahir Khoja, general manager of Afterpay global platform and partnerships. 

“Our partnership with Adyen is allowing us to bring a better way to pay to millions of shoppers across multiple regions around the world.”