Indonesia’s Akulaku Expands BNPL Offering

Indonesian digital banking and finance platform Akulaku is expanding its buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform Akulaku PayLater, according to a Tuesday (July 5) press release.

Launched earlier this year, Akulaku PayLater lets people with little to no credit history purchase the products they need and pay for them in scheduled increments, the release stated. It is offered through 4,000 merchants.

The company said in the release it wants to offer BNPL services to 10,000 online merchants and more than 100,000 offline stores within the next two years.

“Indonesia’s BNPL sector has a strong future,” said Akulaku Chief Financial Officer Fan Zhang. “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.”

Earlier this year, Akulaku received a $100 million strategic investment from Siam Commercial Bank to help fuel its expansion across Southeast Asia.

Read more: Akulaku Gets $100M Investment for Southeast Asia Expansion

The company — which already has a presence in Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia — handed out $2.2 billion in loan disbursements to more than 6 million users last year, twice the amount it loaned in 2020.

As PYMNTS reported last month, BNPL solutions are the fastest-growing online payment method in a number of countries, with a market share that is projected to reach a global transaction value of $656 billion by 2026.

See more: BNPL Options Vary Among Generations and Income Groups

Research found that older generations with higher income levels are expanding their footprint in BNPL use, with 71% of BNPL users with annual incomes greater than $100,000 increasing their use of BNPL in the past year.

That’s ahead of both the 68% of users with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 and the 54% of those with incomes under $50,000.

High-income individuals are also the most likely to show interest in bank-backed BNPL programs, with 39% of individuals in the above-$100,000 bracket showing interest compared to 35% of those in lower-income brackets.