- Key insights: Affirm has signed exclusive distribution deals to get its buy now, pay later loans on Intuit's Quickbooks Payments and Expedia's platform. It also will be the default BNPL provider on Bolt's platform.
- What's at stake: Mid-market and enterprise level vendors are key to distributing Affirm's loans to a larger swath of potential customers.
- Forward look: Affirm reports earnings on Thursday, February 5, and is expected to post gross merchandise value on the top-end of its guidance.
Affirm has been adding to its distribution network, which is bolstering the long-term confidence of investors as the buy now, pay later lender prepares to report quarterly earnings on Thursday.
In three separate deals, Affirm will be the exclusive BNPL provider for Intuit's Quickbooks Pay, and Expedia's lodging and travel packages on its websites. It will also be the default BNPL provider on Bolt's one-click checkout. The deals are wins for Affirm since distribution is key for BNPL lending, where there's stiff competition to add merchants without having to sign individual deals with each retailer.
"Affirm is trying to be everywhere and has done a great job at integrating across the mid-market and enterprise level vendors through its partnerships with payments processors, e-com platforms, and merchants directly," Ben Danner, a senior analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research, told American Banker.
Affirm's multi-year deal with Intuit will open its BNPL loans to millions of merchants that use Quickbooks Payments to process payments.
"By partnering with Affirm to bring native, pay-over-time functionality to QuickBooks, we are giving businesses a powerful new way to increase conversion and improve cash flow, while offering their own customers flexibility," said Intuit's GM of Services Group David Hahn, in a statement.
The play with Quickbooks is about enabling small businesses with BNPL capabilities, which extends that payment option to their customers on their native platform and captures more volume for Affirm, Danner said.
"A keyword in the press release is 'exclusive' and that's important for Affirm to keep volume away from competitors like Klarna and Afterpay," Danner said. "It's a big win."
That exclusive tag also came with Affirm's expanded partnership with Expedia that makes the lender the official installment payment provider for lodging and travel packages on Expedia.com, Hotels.com and Vrbo.
Affirm will additionally be the default BNPL payment provider for Bolt's one-click checkout and presented alongside card payments. Bolt is an
""Checkout is where intent turns into revenue, and flexibility matters in that moment," said Ryan Breslow, founder and CEO of Bolt, in a statement. "By bundling the Affirm BNPL option across Bolt checkout, we're giving merchants a simple, standardized way to offer installment payments that convert without adding friction or operational complexity."
Distribution deals, such as its partnerships with Shop Pay, Amazon and Expedia, have been key to Affirm's
As of September 30, 2025, the company increased its active merchant count by 30% to 419,000 thousand thanks to two unnamed wallet partnerships and the launch of multiple independent software vendor partnerships, according to the company's most-recent earnings report.
"We think new deals and growth at its largest partners will drive above-consensus 30%-plus fiscal 2026 GMV growth, and we see comparable fiscal 2027 growth as it spools up newer customers and takes wallet share," Jeffrey said in a research note.
