Fintech firm Upgrade is getting into buy now, pay later with short-term installment loans
Summary
Upgrade, which was founded by former LendingClub boss Renaud Laplanche in 2016, is a digital banking start-up that offers people payment cards along with personal lines of credit. Unlike a credit card, which lets consumers revolve their balance, Upgrade takes all the purchases someone makes in a month and creates an installment plan for paying down the debt. Buy now, pay later, or BNPL, has boomed to become a $100 billion industry thanks in large part to the coronavirus pandemic which accelerated the growth of online shopping. Rather than charging consumers, BNPL companies make their money by taking a small fee from merchants on each transaction. Instead of adding a checkout option on merchants websites, Upgrade will lump a users card purchases together and invoice them what they owe over a four-month period.