Finance Platform Akulaku, Alipay+ Team to Offer BNPL Solutions

Indonesian banking and digital finance platform Akulaku has partnered with Alipay+, allowing customers in Indonesia to use Akulaku’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) offering PayLater at Alipay+ merchants worldwide.

According to a Tuesday (Sept. 6) news release, Akulaku PayLater launched in 2016, letting consumers with limited credit history access a line of credit as well as manageable installment plans. The company said it can promote consumer purchasing power and help underserved markets take part in digital financial services.

See also: Akulaku Gets $100M Investment for Southeast Asia Expansion

“This partnership will lead to a more advanced and convenient financial landscape for customers in Indonesia and throughout Southeast Asia,” said Fan Zhang, Akulaku’s chief financial officer. “Through Alipay+, we will quickly scale the pool of merchants accepting Akulaku PayLater, giving our consumers an enhanced user experience and improving the market competitiveness of BNPL products.”

In July, Akulaku announced that it was expanding PayLater, saying it wanted to offer the BNPL service to more than 10,000 online merchants and more than 100,000 offline stores in Indonesia within the next two years.

Read more: Indonesia’s Akulaku Expands BNPL Offering

“Indonesia’s BNPL sector has a strong future,” Zhang said at the time. “As countries in Southeast Asia continue to recover [from] post-COVID-19 lockdowns, the overall credit market will continue to grow at an expedited rate. Akulaku is committed to innovation through enhancing our core tech and risk capabilities, as well as by developing additional technological and financial products and services.”

The company said the Indonesian online commerce market grew 32% last year, making it the ninth largest in the world. According to Akulaku, in the next five years, the Indonesian eCommerce market is projected to grow at an annual rate of 10%.

BNPL use is also growing, PYMNTS research has found, with a market share that is projected to hit a worldwide transaction value of $656 billion by 2026.