Today in the Connected Economy: Affirm Boosts Outlook; Stellar Launches Credit Platform; Giift Invests in Xoxoday

Today in the connected economy, buy now, payer later (BNPL) firm Affirm boosted its outlook for the year, and said its enterprise partnerships deserve some of the credit.

Also, FinTech Stellar launched a credit platform, and Singapore’s Giift bought a majority stake in Xoxoday, an Indian FinTech software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider in the rewards space.

BNPL Firm Affirm Boosts Outlook, Credits Partnerships Boosting GMV

BNPL giant Affirm boosted its business performance outlook for the third quarter and full-year 2022 from its original guidance released last month.

Affirm said its fiscal quarter-to-date financial performance “exceeded expectations,” with strong gross merchandise volume (GMV) growth fueled by enterprise partnerships, expected to be a minimum of $3.71 billion for the quarter, up from the $3.61 billion to $3.71 billion range.

“Excluding transaction costs, the company’s operating expenses have trended below expectations for the quarter, resulting in a better-than-expected adjusted operating loss as a percentage of revenue thus far,” the company said.

FinTech Stellar Closes $7M Round, Launches Beta Credit Platform

On the heels of a $7 million initial funding round, FinTech Stellar has debuted a public beta on its credit-building and financial tools platform.

The company also says it will develop “comprehensive money management tools, partnerships for loan and credit card offerings, and financial literacy resources.”

“We created Stellar to provide credit access to the 132 million Americans who currently have poor credit or no credit,” Stellar founder and CEO Lamine Zarrad said. “That’s in large part because traditionally, credit scores are made up of a person’s payment history on loans and credit cards.

“This means bills for everyday purchases like rent, utilities and Netflix go unreported. These are people who pay their bills and get zero reward for it. We want Stellar to let their bills pay them back — something they’ve deserved for a very long time,” he said.

Loyalty Solutions Firm Giift Acquires Majority Stake in FinTech Xoxoday

Singapore-based loyalty management company Giift has purchased a majority stake in Xoxoday, an SaaS provider in the rewards sector.

With Giift’s investment, Xoxoday can expand in international markets and upgrade its loyalty platform technology, the companies said.

Xoxoday’s network lets businesses automate rewards and pay disbursements to employees, partners and customers. Its SaaS offerings include a horizontal platform that automates rewards, incentives, perks and payouts programs. In addition, there’s also a vertical platform that helps organizations create an engaged workplace through a continuous feedback and improvement, as well as a platform to automate sales commissions for sales staff.