PayPal Acquires Japanese Buy Now, Pay Later Company Paidy for Over 3 Trillion Won

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] American online payment company PayPal announced on the 7th (local time) that it will acquire Japanese buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Paidy for $2.7 billion (approximately 3.1496 trillion KRW).

According to Bloomberg News and others, PayPal released a statement on the same day saying that it will acquire Paidy mostly through a cash transaction, and that Paidy will continue to operate under its basic brand after the acquisition, with current CEO Riku Sujie remaining in charge.

PayPal expects the acquisition process to be completed within the fourth quarter of this year. It added that the impact of the Paidy acquisition on next year's adjusted earnings per share will be minimal.

Paidy was founded in 2010 and started BNPL services in Japan in 2014. According to Bloomberg, Paidy currently has about 4.3 million active accounts.

In March, Paidy raised $120 million in funding. At that time, market research firm CB Insights estimated Paidy's valuation at around $1.2 billion.

PayPal began offering BNPL services last year. Its transaction volume is around $3.5 billion.

Earlier last month, PayPal's competitor Square also announced that it would acquire Australian BNPL company Afterpay for $29 billion through a stock exchange deal.