Millennials love it. Amateur investors made millions out of it, and its founders became billionaires. But professional investors steered clear, regarding it as over-valued.
In a few short years, the Australian start up Afterpay has put a rocket under consumer finance and birthed a global industry. It pioneered the four-payments model that allows customers to bypass credit cards for online shopping and budgeting, with the cost borne by the retailer. Five years after it was founded, Afterpay had changed the way a generation went shopping, how brands from big retailers to fashion labels win customers, and how institutions value companies.
Buy Now, Pay Later recounts the dramatic behind-the-scenes story of the founding and rise of Afterpay, It reveals the network of business and personal relationships that enabled the company to finance its speedy growth, and the manoeuvering that enabled it to escape regulation for years, as well as the near-death experiences, and rising concern that it is getting young people hooked on debt.
Drawing on years of on the ground reporting, interviews with the founders and other key figures involved in their rollercoaster ride, this is the Afterpay story told in full for the first time.