Report: Walmart-backed fintech plans to enter buy-now, pay-later space

A fintech startup whose investors include Walmart will reportedly begin offering a buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) solution as soon as 2023.

In accordance CNBCOne, a fintech company jointly backed by Walmart and innInvestment firm Ribbit Capital, one of the venture capital firms behind Robinhood, plans to launch a BNPL service that customers can use online and in-store at Walmart as well as other retailers.

[Read more: Walmart to create fintech start-up]

A source said so CNBC that continued economic challenges and inflation motivate the decision to roll out a new BNPL service. According to a recent study from Juniper Research, the number of BNPL users will exceed 900 million globally by 2027. This will mark an increase of more than 540 million users from 360 million users in 2022. Juniper Research data indicates that this 157% growth will be driven by an expected economic downturn, which will increase the demand for affordable credit solutions.

Interestingly, Walmart has offered a flexible payment option for buy now, pay later ((BNPL) with the Affirm page). February 2019, when it began allowing customers to use Affirm to make installment payments on purchases at more than 4,000 Walmart Supercenter stores nationwide. Walmart has also integrated Affirm as a payment option on the Walmart.com e-commerce site, and is making the service available in Walmart Vision Centers.

In August 2022, eligible consumers who spent $300 or more on a single purchase with Verify at Walmart, either in-store or online, received a free 90-day Walmart+ membership. Members of the Walmart+ program, which normally costs $12.95 a month/$98 a year, get exclusive benefits like free shipping with no minimum order, free in-store delivery and discounted gas prices. Walmart has too replaced its layaway program with partial payments from Affirm.

Walmart Expands Payment Options, Makes Fintech Move
Helping support the launch of One and partnering with Affirm in the BNPL space are just some of the steps Walmart has taken in recent years to both become more flexible in how it accepts payments and to establish a presence in the fintech space. In October 2022, the discount giant joined the Premium Payback network for real-time redemption of rewards offered by fintech provider FIS. As a result, Walmart customers can redeem credit card points for real-time discounts at more than 4,700 Walmart stores across the US

Walmart has too merged with payment platform and financial technology company PayNearMe to allow customers to make cash bills to utilities and other billers at select Walmart stores. Other features include cooperates with InComm Payments to make the payment technology provider’s Vanilla Direct financial network available nationwide in more than 4,700 stores.

Walmart has not commented publicly. Read more coverage from CNBChere.