Fintechs want consumers to move from ‘save now, buy later’ to ‘buy now, pay later’

Indian fintech startups are queuing up behind digital checkout counters asking customers to place their orders and pay later. At zero interest. No credit card, no problem.

Short-term, zero collateral, interest-free loans at the click of a virtual button—that’s the ‘buy now, pay later’ model that fintechs, retailers, brands and customers are all lapping up. For the first three, BNPL presents a hassle-free and relatively inexpensive growth hack to get more of the last.

Capital Float, primarily a lender to small and medium enterprises, is doubling down on its BNPL business. Pine Labs, a deployer of payment card reading terminals, is looking for ways to leverage its EMI financing business for a BNPL business. And Sezzle, a US-based BNPL startup that launched in India in August, has roped in more than 2,000 direct-to-consumer brands on its platform.