Buy now pay later firms are quickly becoming the alternative to credit cards during the pandemic; companies like Afterpay, Zip, Splitit and Sezzle have all seen big success with stay at home orders taking hold; Afterpay in particular has taken off, their stock is up more than ninefold since March and this week the company raised $452.6mn from institutional investors to expand into more countries; the new shares were priced 6.9 percent above the floor price, at a level the stock only hit for the first time less than a week earlier; the company could see slower growth as the economy continues to open, though Afterpay says they will be available in physical stores as well; additional regulatory scrutiny could also come to the company as they grow, “The more successful Afterpay is, the more likely it will attract regulatory scrutiny,” said Tom Beadle, a Sydney-based analyst at UBS, to the Wall Street Journal; Afterpay isn’t the only company in the space seeing big growth, Shopify, Affirm and others are also having moments as customer behavior begins to shift. Wall Street Journal.
