The move is part of Zip’s global expansion plans. Credit: Zip Co Limited.

Australian fintech Zip has agreed to acquire South African buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm Payflex to further expands its footprint on the continent.

Financial terms of the deal have not been revealed.

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Payflex, which is said to be the first and largest BNPL player in South Africa, currently has a over 1,000 active merchants and more than 135,000 customers.

Payflex allows shoppers to split the cost of their purchase into four equal instalments and pay it over period of six-weeks, without any interest.

The deal is expected to help Zip to grow its South African business and expand into other underbanked and untapped markets in the continent.

Zip managing director and CEO Larry Diamon said: “We started the year with a clear strategy for global expansion, and we have seen record growth, ending the year with $5,8b in total transaction volume, and more than 7.3M customers and 51k merchants around the world.”

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Payflex founder and CEO Paul Behrmann said: “Zip’s acquisition will boost the speed and scale of Payflex’s expansion and allow merchants and shoppers to benefit from Zip’s world-class products, platform and global reach.”

Rapid global expansion

Zip, which currently operates across twelve markets across five continents, has been looking to rapidly expand its global presence.

In May this year, the firm acquired European BNPL provider Twisto and UAE-based startup Spotii in a move to build up its footprint across Europe and the Middle East.

It followed acquisitions of US-based customer-centric payments instalment platform QuadPay last year and instalment payments provider PartPay in 2019.