Fintech Advance.AI riding wave of buy-now pay-later online shopping

Published Thu, Aug 20, 2020 · 09:50 PM

Singapore

LOCAL fintech Advance.AI has seen rising demand from younger shoppers in taking up instalment plans for online retail spending - a service it is selling to retailers now forced by the pandemic-linked measures to digitalise their sales.

With Covid-19 measures leading to physical stores being shuttered and people stuck at home, the fintech - which is part of a consortium gunning for a digital bank licence here - has seen a surge in demand for its buy-now pay-later checkout financing solution.

The service, launched by its consumer arm Atome Financial, aided a more than tripling in online transactions for its 500-odd merchants. Gross merchandise volume posted by the merchants it works with - a key metric in retail - has grown 11 times, even with the relatively subdued consumer spending in Singa…