Apple Stakes a Huge Claim in the BNPL World

Perhaps the most widely used innovation of the modern era of fintech is buy now, pay later (BNPL). International startups like Klarna have built fortunes based on BNPL, and PayPal and Stripe have leveraged their considerable tech muscle to integrate BNPL services into their already popular offerings.

Now startups and financial giants alike have a new competitor: Apple. According to an announcement by the company, Apple Pay will be updated to offer a service called Apple Pay Later, allowing users to split up the cost of a payment into four equal portions over six weeks…all without any interest or fees.

“The BNPL space is getting crowded with lots of new players still entering the market,” said Ken Serdons, Chief Commercial Officer of payment startup Mollie. “It will be hard for players with a subpar proposition to compete effectively against the best players out there.” With a billion iPhones in use worldwide and some of the most innovative tech out there, it’s hard to imagine Apple will soon be anything but one of the biggest players in the BNPL game, if not necessarily the best.