Visa invests in point-of-sale lender ChargeAfter

Point of sale credit is a popular option, and Visa has followed its investment in Klarna by financially backing ChargeAfter.

The card brand hopes to provide more choice and flexibility for web and offline purchases. ChargeAfter's lending platform and financing will be distributed to Visa’s issuers, acquirers and merchants. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Consumers increasingly demand more choice and flexibility when making a payment, whether for their everyday needs or high-value items. Working with ChargeAfter, we aim to make it easier for sellers and financial institutions to offer a range of tailored, personalized financing options at the point of sale, allowing consumers to manage their payments in a way that works for them,” said Shahar Friedman, head of Innovation Studio Tel-Aviv at Visa in a press release.

The partnership and investment into ChargeAfter is a competitive move to counter a similar play taken last year by American Express and Mastercard with their investments in London-based lending platform Divido. Both ChargeAfter and Divido provide white-label platforms to retailers that provide customers with access to credit.

Unlike alternative credit providers such as Klarna and Affirm, these platforms create a marketplace for multiple lenders to compete for a purchase being made by businesses and consumers.

According to Crunchbase, a website that tracks investments in private startup companies, ChargeAfter has raised more than $8 million over three funding rounds since 2017. In its most recent Series A funding round, which was completed in 2019 and was led by BBVA’s venture capital business Propel Venture Partners, ChargeAfter was able to gain investment capital from the private-label credit card giant Synchrony Financial. Additional investors in the round included Pico Ventures and Plug and Play.