grid-line

17 Important BNPL Companies & Startups to Watch in 2024

by Josh Howarth
February 6, 2024

You may also like:

BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) companies allow customers to make purchases and pay the full amount in installments over time. Importantly, many BNPL providers don’t require any additional fees or interest rates on top of the original payment amount.

The BNPL industry is expected to continue to grow. A lot. The BNPL space is valued at $232.23 billion in 2024 and is estimated to grow to just over $1.0T by 2028.

The main driver of this growth? The popularity of BNPL among younger shoppers. Gen Z shoppers enjoy the instant gratification (and delayed pain of making a full payment) that BNPL provides.

With such strong and continued growth over time, it’s likely that more BNPL startups will launch to provide this payment option to customers worldwide. Let’s examine how key players are impacting and growing this space.

1. Sunbit

5-year search growth: 1,550%

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2016

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Funding: $770M (Debt Financing)

What they do: Sunbit provides pay-over-time options for unexpected expenses, from auto repair to vet care. Used by thousands of customers, the application process is designed to approve 90% of applicants. To date, there are over 13,000 merchants who accept Sunbit for payment. In January 2024, Sunbit secured a $310 million warehouse debt facility from Citibank and Ares Capital Management. 

2. Affirm

5-year search growth: 165%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2012

Location: San Francisco, CA

Funding: $1.5B (Post-IPO Equity)

What they do: Affirm is a fintech company that provides customers with an alternative to credit cards when checking out. Partnering with over 2,000 merchants, customers are shown upfront what they will be paying each month, and there are no hidden or late fees. Some merchants, such as Amazon and Peloton, offer 0% APR.

3. Scalapay

5-year search growth: 7,700%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2019

Location: Milan, Italy

Funding $953M (Series B)

What they do: Scalapay allows buyers to make purchases in-store and online and pay in 3 monthly installments. At checkout, users can choose from Visa, Mastercard or Amex. Used by over 1,500 merchants, Scalapay has increased online stores’ basket size by 48% and boosted conversions by 11%.

4. Zip Co

5-year search growth: -23%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2013

Location: Sydney, Australia

Funding: $893.6M (Post-IPO Debt)

What they do: Zip is a BNPL company that allows customers to pay in 4 installments over 6 weeks, without any impact on their credit score. Zip is available anywhere Visa is accepted, and merchants can integrate the platform in 10 minutes. To date, over 11.4 million shoppers worldwide use Zip.

5. Klarna

5-year search growth: 167%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2005

Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Funding: $4.5B (Angel)

What they do: Klarna is a BNPL platform for eCommerce companies. Users can split their transaction into 4 installments and choose when to pay, both in-person and online. Based on 465,000 reviews in the App Store, the Klarna app has been rated 4.8 stars.

6. Splitit

5-year search growth: -50%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2012

Location: New York, NY

Funding: $275.1M (Post-IPO Equity)

What they do: Splitit is a BNPL platform that offers “installments-as-as-service” to connect card networks, merchants and customers. Customers can use their existing credit card to go through an approval process and pay for their purchases over time, without any additional interest fees. Splitit has $3T of underwritten credit and has an average review of 4.1 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot.

7. Laybuy

5-year search growth: 52%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2016

Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Funding: $172.1M (Post-IPO Debt)

What they do: Laybuy allows customers to spread their purchase amount over 6 weeks that are always interest-free. Payments will be withdrawn each week automatically, and users can visit their dashboard to manage all of their online orders. On the app, customers can search for and shop for specific products and merchants.

8. Afterpay

5-year search growth: -17%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2014

Location: Melbourne, Australia

Funding: $448.7M (Post-IPO Equity)

What they do: Afterpay allows customers to shop from thousands of brands, both online and in-person. Customers can pay in 4 interest-free installments over the course of 6 weeks, without any additional fees or interest. As of June 2021, Afterpay is available in more than 100,000 merchants worldwide and is used by more than 10.5 million people.

9. Zaver

5-year search growth: 800%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2016

Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Funding: $8.3M (Series Unknown)

What they do: Zaver offers two checkout solutions for merchants: Zaver Checkout and Zaver Cashout. With Checkout, merchants can reduce checkout friction by using payment links to digitize physical sales and quick point-of-sale user experiences, even for small cart purchases.

10. Addi

5-year search growth: 215%

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2018

Location: Bogota, Colombia

Funding: $376.3M (Debt Financing)

What they do: Addi gives customers the option to pay for their purchase in 3 installments with 0% interest. The startup has partnered with over 800 brands and has helped merchants 3x their average cart size and increase sales by 20%.

11. Paidy

5-year search growth: 46%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2008

Location: Minato, Japan

Funding: $397.9M (Series D)

What they do: Paidy is a Japanese BNPL platform that gives customers the option to shop online without a credit card or pre-registration. When customers are ready to check out, they enter their email address and phone number, receive a verification code sent via SMS and finish transacting. Then, payments are due by the 10th of the following month.

12. Tamara

5-year search growth: 3%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2020

Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Funding: $365.6M (Debt Financing)

What they do: Tamara is a payments platform that serves customers in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. Customers can make and split purchases using Tamara both in-store and online, with no additional fees or interest. Thousands of merchants partner with the company, including Swarovski and Shein.

13. Capchase

5-year search growth: 2,600%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2020

Location: New York, New York

Funding: $949.6M (Debt Financing)

What they do: Capchase is a fintech and BNPL startup that provides non-dilutive financing for high-growth SaaS companies. In March 2023, Capchase entered the buy now, pay later space by launching Capchase Pay. This feature gives buyers flexible payment installments while giving the vendors the full contract value upfront. It's estimated that Capchase did $40.5M in revenue and served 3,000 customers in 2023. 

14. Hokodo

5-year search growth: 122%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2018

Location: London, England

Funding: $56.9M (Series B)

What they do: Hokodo is a London-based BNPL payment solution for online and offline B2B sales. Buyers can choose from payment terms of 14, 30, 45, 60, 90 days, or end-of-month. Hokodo provides 100% credit and fraud risk protection and a Trade credit service that allows B2B merchants to offer credit terms to their business customers. In April 2023, the startup secured a Series B extension from Citi to continue its expansion in Europe. 

15. PayFlex

5-year search growth: 103%

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2017

Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

Funding: $500K (Corporate Round)

What they do: PayFlex is a South African BNPL payment platform that enables customers to pay in 4 installments. With an Excellent rating from almost 25K customers on Trustpilot, merchants who use PayFlex have boosted their sales by 30%.

16. Sezzle

5-year search growth: 200%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2016

Location: Minneapolis, MN

Funding: $401.6M (Post-IPO Debt)

What they do: Sezzle is a payment platform that provides buyers with the option of paying for their purchase over the course of 6 weeks and splitting it into 4 interest-free payments. Customers sign up and go through a quick approval process, and then shop from over 47,000 brands that have partnered with Sezzle.

17. Beforepay

5-year search growth: 4,900%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2019

Location: Sydney, Australia

Funding: $30.0M (Post-IPO Debt)

What they do: Beforepay is a BNPL company that offers a Pay On Demand feature, through which customers can access a portion of their earned wages before the traditional payday. For a fixed 5% fee, users can access up to $2,000 of their pay early to make purchases and then repay the amount over time. In July 2023, Beforepay reached 1 million customers and $1 billion in total pay advances

Conclusion

That’s our list of the top BNPL companies in the space right now.

One major trend among these companies is offering zero fees and interest payment installments. Customers have grown accustomed to this key feature and would likely respond poorly to any companies that charge additional fees for using a BNPL service.

Many companies are also emphasizing pricing transparency — they’re aware that customers are skeptical of hidden fees or additional charges, so many feature language about this on their homepage to reduce customer friction.

To conclude, the BNPL business model is likely here to stay and flourish, as these companies provide payment flexibility and allow customers to make large purchases without worrying about paying the full amount upfront.