Affirm disclosed it had raised $45 million in funding, signaling investor interest in point-of-sale lending as an alternative to credit cards. The funding supported expansion of technology and merchant integrations needed for BNPL-style checkout options.
Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen co-founded Afterpay in Australia, building a product that let shoppers split purchases into several interest-free payments while merchants paid fees for the service. This “pay-in-installments at checkout” model became a template for fast BNPL expansion later in the decade.
Klarna entered the U.S. market and began focusing more on American growth, including high-visibility retail partnerships. This move helped bring European-style “pay later” options into U.S. e-commerce checkouts at a larger scale.
Afterpay completed its merger with Touchcorp, forming Afterpay Touch Group. The combination strengthened its technology platform and supported faster merchant onboarding and international expansion.
Afterpay launched in the U.S., quickly signing recognizable retail brands and bringing its “pay in four” approach to American shoppers. This accelerated competition among BNPL providers for U.S. merchants and consumers.
Walmart announced an omnichannel partnership with Affirm, rolling out installment payment options online and across many U.S. stores. The deal showed BNPL moving from niche e-commerce into major big-box retail and everyday shopping trips.
Afterpay announced a strategic partnership with Visa as it expanded beyond early merchant relationships and into broader payment-network collaboration. This helped normalize BNPL as part of mainstream payments infrastructure rather than a stand-alone checkout add-on.
Affirm filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. The filing reflected BNPL’s rapid growth and rising public-market interest in checkout-based lending platforms.
Affirm announced the pricing of its IPO at $49 per share and planned to begin trading the next day. The offering raised substantial capital and increased visibility for BNPL as a distinct category within consumer finance.
Affirm began trading on Nasdaq under the symbol AFRM, with a large first-day price jump that drew wider attention to the BNPL business model. Public trading also increased scrutiny of revenue concentration, credit risk, and underwriting practices as the category matured.
Klarna raised $639 million in a funding round that valued the company at about $46 billion. The valuation captured the peak of investor enthusiasm for BNPL growth, especially as online shopping surged and merchants looked for tools to increase conversion at checkout.
Square (later Block) announced an agreement to acquire Afterpay in an all-stock deal valued at about $29 billion. The move marked a major consolidation moment, tying BNPL to a larger payments ecosystem (merchant services and consumer wallet apps) and closing the 2014–2021 growth arc with a clear “scale via acquisition” outcome.
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) growth: Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm (2014–2021)