Anthony Thomson, the founder of Metro Bank, Atom Bank and Australia's first neobank 86 400, is stepping into the buy now, pay later (BNPL) space as the new chair of Zip UK.
Founded in 2013 in Sydney, Australia, Zip is one of the fastest growing BNPL providers in the world with over 7.3 million customers. It currently has a presence in 13 markets globally - including Australia, USA, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Canada - and is growing quickly through acquisitions, most recently a strategic investment in Indian BNPL platform ZestMoney.
Zip is eyeing significant growth in the UK following its arrival in March 2021.
Says Thomson: “Zip was created to give consumers an easier and more flexible way of buying the things they both want and need. Consumer credit can be complex and opaque, things that Zip has been specifically built to avoid. The UK BNPL market is at a very early stage, so to join the board at this time, at an important moment for the industry, is very exciting.