What’s Next for Afterpay After Acquisition by Dorsey’s Block

Afterpay co-CEO Anthony Eisen is experiencing the buy now, pay later industry at an inflection point as competition mounts and the pandemic tailwind for e-commerce fades. And stand-alone services have two options to battle that: Differentiate themselves or look for a deal to scale up.

The Australia-based online lender is now part of payments giant Block following an acquisition that reshaped the installment lending landscape. Afterpay is focused on leveraging its new position by tapping into the over 1 million merchants that use Block’s point-of-sale service, Square, and the nearly 70 million customers on its Cash App, Eisen said.

“Competition has been there from day one. We fully expect it to get more intense,” Eisen said in his first published interview since the Block deal closed in late January. “But at the end of the day, we think we can deliver more value.”