Australian buy now, pay later outfit Zip has struck a deal with Singapore's Singtel to provide embedded payment instalment services to the 1.3 million users of the telco's Dash mobile wallet.
Dash customers can currently use Zip’s Pay Later service for in-store or online purchases from merchants such as Klook, Omnidesk, OSIM and Singtel. Zip’s current payment scheme offers four interest-free instalments across six weeks.
Over the next six months, the BNPL firm will be rolling out more payment schemes and bringing on board more than 2,000 merchants through partner agreements with AsiaPay, Razer Merchant Services and HitPay.
Gilbert Chuah, head of financial at Singtel comments: “This collaboration adds to Dash’s rapidly growing financial services business and we are working on expanding our suite of financial products and services to meet our customers’ diverse needs.”
According to FIS’ 2021 Global Payment Report, BNPL is projected to be the fastest growing payment method for Singapore, with transaction volume expected to increase from US$210 million in 2020 to US$1.3 billion by 2024. A study commissioned by Zip also showed that 56% of e-commerce users in Singapore have used or will consider using a BNPL service.
Larry Diamond, CEO and co-founder of Zip says: “Our move into Singapore is an opportunity for us to tap into the country’s growing BNPL market and expand our presence in the South East Asian region following our strategic investment in BNPL provider TendoPay in the Philippines.”
Zip, which is currently in talks to buy US rival Sezzle, has made a host of deals in recent months as it looks to scale and compete with the likes of Klarna and Afterpay in the thriving BNPL market.