External | what does this mean? This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. BNPL trends: Live Now, Pay Later
09 July 2024
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Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is an emerging trend that has rapidly gained traction. It allows consumers to purchase goods and services immediately while deferring the payment over a series of instalments, often without interest or fees if payments are made on time. Source: stock.adobe.com by panuwat
The growth trajectory of BNPL services is remarkable, with Juniper Research , projecting an increase from 380 million users in 2024 to over 670 million globally by 2028. This substantial growth of 107% will be driven by the anticipated economic downturn, which will increase the demand for low-cost credits instead of traditional banking solutions. Demographically, BNPL services are particularly popular among younger consumers worldwide. According to statistics from LexisNexis Risk Solutions , consumers aged 35 and under make up 53% of BNPL users, compared to just 35% of traditional credit card holders. Millennials have begun using BNPL at a higher rate than other generations, with nearly 45 million millennials expected to use proximity mobile payments in 2024, more than any other generation. This trend is driven by several factors: many young consumers are still building their financial independence and may have limited access to traditional credit. BNPL offers a flexible alternative to credit cards, often without requiring a strong credit history. Additionally, younger consumers prefer to avoid traditional debt and the high-interest rates associated with credit cards. They are also more comfortable with digital technology and value instant access to experiences. This underscores a significant shift in spending patterns, with younger demographics increasingly opting for BNPL to manage cash flow and finance everyday purchases. The Evolution of BNPL into Live Now, Pay Later
The Buy Now, Pay Later model, once a niche financial product, has undergone a major transformation, expanding into what is now termed Live Now, Pay Later (LNPL). This evolution mirrors a change in consumer preferences, especially  among younger generations who favour experiences over material possessions. As younger consumers increasingly value flexibility and immediate access, LNPL has become a preferred financial solution. Live Now, Pay Later takes the core idea of BNPL and applies it to various aspects of life. 1. Send (or Remit) Now, Pay Later
Companies like Remitly and Western Union are exploring instalment-based remittance services to meet the needs of consumers who require urgent money transfers but cannot afford the upfront cost. These platforms enable users to instantly transfer money to friends, family, or businesses with the option to repay in instalments, thus providing crucial support for those facing immediate financial demands. The Digital Remittances market is projected to reach USD 150.80 billion in transaction value in 2024, with an annual growth rate of 4.76%, totaling USD 181.60 billion by 2028. The number of users in this market is projected to reach 18.74 million by 2028 . This integration of ВNPL into remittance services reflects a broader trend towards flexible financial solutions in everyday transactions. 2. Fly Now, Pay Later
Сompanies like Uplift and Klarna, allow customers to book flights and accommodation immediately and pay in instalments later. According to Deloitte’s report on travel trends, 75% of travellers are more likely to pick a BNPL option to fund their trips. This flexibility enables travellers to select the most convenient method for their needs. Interestingly, BNPL also encourages consumers to opt for more premium options, such as luxury accommodation or first-class tickets, enhancing their overall travel experience and driving higher sales for travel companies. This trend is particularly significant among Millennials and Gen Z, who are expected to become the largest travel spenders. 3. Rent Now, Pay Later
Companies such as Flex and Domuso are pioneering rental payment plans that allow tenants to move into properties immediately and pay their rent in instalments, without upfront fees or interest charges. This approach not only enhances affordability but also expands access to housing for individuals who may face financial constraints. Given the current economic landscape characterised by rising interest rates, soaring home prices, and increasing demand for rental properties, the rental market is projected to grow to $3,749.95 billion in 2028 , with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.5%. In this context, BNPL services are becoming increasingly popular in the rental sector. 4. Ride Now, Pay Later
Ride-sharing giants such as Lyft and Uber are actively exploring BNPL models to enhance ridership. For instance, in April 2024 , Uber partnered with Klarna to introduce instalment payment options. With nearly 9.5 billion trips taken on Uber in 2023, averaging 28 million trips per day in Q4 '23 alone, averaged out to 28 million trips per day - more than one million per hour. This kind of BNPL integration will notably benefit markets where daily commuting costs pose financial challenges for low-income individuals. This approach not only attracts more riders but also provides them with the flexibility to manage transportation expenses more effectively, contributing to greater mobility and convenience. 5. Learn Now, Pay Later
Companies like EdAid and Skills Fund are leading the way in offering financing for courses and bootcamps with deferred payment plans. The integration of BNPL into the education sector highlights a trend toward flexible financial solutions that cater to the evolving needs of learners. This approach is particularly beneficial for individuals from underserved, low-income communities, making education more financially feasible and inclusive. With the number of users in the Online Education market expected to reach 1.121 billion by 2029 , the effectiveness of educational institutions lies in their ability to facilitate online payment capabilities, allowing students to manage the costs. 6. Party Now, Pay Later
BNPL has also made its way into the entertainment industry with services that allow users to "Party Now, Pay Later". This innovative approach enables consumers to purchase tickets for concerts, festivals, and other events and pay for them over time, thus alleviating the immediate financial burden. By enabling fans to enjoy their favourite events without upfront costs, BNPL services have made entertainment more accessible. This aligns with the preferences of Millennials and Gen Z, who are increasingly prioritising experiences over material possessions. Three out of four millennials prefer spending on experiences rather than products, seeking unique and immersive activities that create lasting memories. The events industry has tapped into this trend by adopting services like Afterpay and Klarna, which offer flexible payment options to attendees. 7. Play Now, Pay Later
Platforms like Razer Gold enable gamers to buy virtual goods on credit, making it easier to acquire in-game currency, items, or subscriptions without the immediate financial burden. A recent report by Statista shows that the global games market revenue is expected to reach $455 billion in 2024, with in-game purchases accounting for a substantial portion of this revenue. As BNPL services continue to gain momentum, more gamers are likely to utilise these options to enhance their gaming experience, further driving growth in the industry. A Future Outlook of BNPL
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) has rapidly become an integral part of everyday life, significantly impacting the traditional banking sector. According to J. D. Power , overall customer satisfaction with BNPL services has risen by 16 points year over year, driven by the reasonableness of terms, ease of use, and the high security of sensitive data. As the industry continues to mature, we can expect new fintech providers to emerge globally, likely resulting in a transition away from traditional credit towards more innovative payment schemes. BNPL covers a wide range of B2C businesses, and its applications are becoming increasingly tailored to specific needs. From "Party Now, Pay Later" for the entertainment industry, "Learn now, Pay Later" for education, to "Ride Now, Pay Later" for transportation, and "Play Now, Pay Later" for gaming, the possibilities are virtually endless. This trend reflects a significant shift in how consumers manage their finances, seeking flexible and accessible payment options. The growing prevalence of BNPL has spurred banks and credit card companies to embrace this trend for competitive advantage. Institutions like Citibank, HSBC, and American Express have introduced BNPL products, allowing customers to split payments into interest-free instalments seamlessly integrated within banking apps. Some of them exemplify this approach, enabling customers to manage large purchases conveniently through their mobile banking platform. These initiatives not only enhance consumer choices and terms but also bolster confidence among businesses, mitigating fraud risks associated with non-regulated BNPL providers. Forecasts predict over 10 billion BNPL transactions by 2028, highlighting its establishment as a pivotal tool in modern financial services. According to the PYMNTS report , BNPL has cemented its place within the financial services ecosystem, offering crucial access to credit for those underserved by traditional methods. As regulatory frameworks evolve, continued growth in consumer confidence and adoption of BNPL is anticipated, solidifying its role as an indispensable component of future financial strategies.

BNPL trends: Live Now, Pay Later

image via virtuix facebook
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Skills Fund Acquired By Goal Structured Solutions
Austin-based Skills Fund , a startup which offered up financing for students attending "coding bootcamps", has been acquired by Goal Structured Solutions, a consumer finance company that managed consumer and student loans, has the two said last week. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. According to the companies, all of Skills Fun
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Skills Fund Acquired By Goal Structured Solutions

Austin-based Skills Fund is Acquired by Goal Structured Solutions of San Diego
June 4, 2019 by lalorek
Rick O’Donnell, Founder and CEO of Skills Fund, said in a news release. Austin-based Skills Fund , a financing platform for bootcamps and tech skill training schools, announced Tuesday that it has been acquired by San Diego, Calif.-based Goal Structured Solutions . The acquisition was an all cash deal but the sales price was not disclosed. Skills Fund, founded in2015, previously raised $11.5 million in seed stage funding. “We created Skills Fund four years ago with a simple premise: don’t finance students to go to crappy schools. We’ve delivered on that promise by underwriting the quality of education to ensure programs genuinely deliver career outcomes worth a student’s time and money,”  Rick O’Donnell, Founder and CEO of Skills Fund, said in a news release. “Furthermore, student demand for lenders who focus on real outcomes is off the charts. By teaming up with Goal, we will have additional resources to serve even more students at a broader array of programs that deliver great outcomes.”
Skills Fund partnerswith more than 70 schools and 400 programs. It lends money to students participatingin programs in software development, web development, data science, andcybersecurity
Goal is the largestthird-party provider of student loan services and currently manages a portfolioof over $26 billion. “This transaction is anexciting opportunity to continue expanding our commitment to outcomes-basedlending. Higher education is moving away from encouraging students (and theirparents) from taking out student loans for an education that doesn’t pay off.Skills Fund is at the forefront of fixing the misalignments among accreditors,lenders, and schools regarding what is best for the student. With Skills Fundnow a part of the Goal family of companies, we further strengthen our effortsas the leader of outcomes-based student lending,” Ken Ruggiero, Chairman andCEO of Goal, said in a news release. Skills Fund will operateas a wholly owned subsidiary of Goal, with the Skills Fund team continuing tobe based out of Austin. O’Donnell and co-founder Joseph Kozusko will continueto lead the company. Share this:

Austin-based Skills Fund is Acquired by Goal Structured Solutions of San Diego

Coding bootcamps promise a speedy vocational education tailored to helping students land high-paying jobs. But cheap they are not: most programs cost upwards of $10,000, and because many are privately operated and unaccredited, they are not eligible for federal loans. One of the earliest financiers for students attending these schools is Skills Fund . This week, the Austin-based company was acquired by Goal Structured Solutions, a company that manages consumer and student loans. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but all of Skills Fund’s current staff of 15 will join the new owner. Skills Fund was founded in 2015, around the time when the industry hit “peak” bootcamp as the number of providers and investment capital in them ballooned. Most of these programs typically run for fewer than six months and aim to teach students the coding chops they need to get a programmer job. Because many of these programs and pedagogies were new and unproven, Rick O’Donnell, Skills Fund’s founder and CEO, says it had to be careful about which bootcamps it would provide loans to. Each provider that wanted to give their students access to Skills Fund’s loans were vetted to ensure that the programs delivered what they promised. O’Donnell has long argued that lenders (like his company) and bootcamps have an aligned incentive to ensure graduates’ success. The logic goes like this: because Skills Fund only makes money when students pay back their debt, it is in its interest that graduates land jobs with salaries that can support those payments. When vetting a program, Skills Fund looks at a school’s admissions process, the rigor of curriculum and assessments, time spent to complete the program, and whether graduates actually find employment in the field for which they studied. It found early on that self-reported information from schools were not always reliable. So in 2017, it was a founding partner of the Council on Integrity in Results Reporting, a coalition of coding bootcamps that created a set of standards around transparency in reporting student outcomes. Currently, Skills Fund works with more than 70 schools. It has also cut ties with about a dozen providers for a variety of reasons: losing licensure, getting acquired or simply shutting down. The company says it has chosen not to work with about one-third of the schools that have expressed interest. As O’Donnell puts it bluntly: “We don’t finance students to go to crappy schools.”
Skills Fund primarily services coding, cybersecurity and other technology-focused programs, including those offered by Bloc, Thinkful and Galvanize. It also works with vocational programs in other industries; one teaches power-line repair skills; another focuses on commercial driving training. To date, Skills Fund has provided close to $150 million in loans to more than 10,000 students. Interest rates for its loans hover from 8 to 10 percent, according to O’Donnell, and the timeframe for repayment typically ranges from 3 to 5 years. (Average federal student loan rates today for graduate and professional school is around 6 percent, but coding bootcamps are not eligible for them.) In terms of repayment, the results aren’t perfect; O’Donnell shares that a small percentage of students have defaulted on their loans (in the “low single digit”). But he claims the company is currently cashflow positive. When it launched, Skills Fund had raised $1.5 million in equity financing to cover its operating costs. It secured another $140 million in debt and lending capital, mostly through Iowa Student Loan, a nonprofit based in Des Moine. But as the company expanded to service more programs, it outgrew the capital that Iowa Student Loan could provide. As it looked for other sources of funding, it found an interested party in Goal Structured Solutions. “The coding bootcamp industry is still growing at a healthy clip,” says O’Donnell. “Our growth requires capital to offer more loans.” According to the most recent estimate from Course Report, coding bootcamps in the U.S. and Canada make up a $240 million industry in 2018. (Its earliest report, in 2014, estimated the market at $59 million.) Goal Structured Solutions, based in San Diego, claims to be one of the biggest third-party providers of student loan services, managing more than $27 billion in federal and private student loans. In 2017, it offered a $2 million credit facility to Make School, a coding education provider that offers income-share agreements , where students pay no tuition upfront but instead agree to pay a percentage of their future earnings for a set period of time. Skills Fund has looked into income-share agreements but has not offered them due to ongoing “legal and regulatory ambiguity,” according to O’Donnell. Officials at the U.S. Department of Education have expressed interest in experimenting with ISAs, but it has drawn pushback from Democrats. Still, offering ISAs remains a possibility for Skills Fund. “We may look again in the future,” says O’Donnell. “At the end of the day, higher education is moving toward outcomes-based funding and financing. It’s going to take awhile to get there.”
Tony Wan ( @tonywan ) is Managing Editor at EdSurge, where he covers business and financing trends in the edtech industry. Reach him at tony [at] edsurge [dot] com. Mergers and Acquisitions

Coding Bootcamp Lender, Skills Fund Acquired by Goal Structured Solutions

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Skills Fund and NIMAA : Our Partnership .

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TrueCoders

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Bethel School of Technology

SecureSet Academy is building an end-to-end community focused on fulfilling the promise of cybersecurity. SecureSet Academy's accredited CORE programs are the direct path to careers in this booming industry. This intensive program-available in full time or evening schedules-includes extensive hands on instruction in state-of-the-art labs, guided product training, and essential certifications (CISSP and Security+).

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Sunnova Energy

White House

Acquired - II

Skills Fund is a student financing platform that facilitates the growth of higher education providers by ensuring that coding, data science, and other accelerated learning programs meet quality standards and by providing competitive financing products for their students.

On March 31st, 2021, Skills Fund was acquired by Ascent Funding. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Date	Round	Amount	Investors	Valuation Valuations are submitted by companies, mined from state filings or news, provided by VentureSource, or based on a comparables valuation model.	Revenue	Sources
3/31/2021	Acquired - II		Ascent Funding	$XXM	0 FY undefined	1
4/6/2020	Loan	$XXM	Subscribe to see more	$XXM	0 FY undefined	0
6/4/2019	Acquired		Subscribe to see more	$XXM	0 FY undefined	10
10/21/2015	Seed	$XXM	Subscribe to see more	$XXM	0 FY undefined	10

Date	3/31/2021	4/6/2020	6/4/2019	10/21/2015
Round	Acquired - II	Loan	Acquired	Seed
Amount		$XXM		$XXM
Investors	Ascent Funding	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more
Valuation	$XXM	$XXM	$XXM	$XXM
Revenue	0 FY undefined	0 FY undefined	0 FY undefined	0 FY undefined
Sources	1	0	10	10

First funding	Last Funding	Investor	Rounds	Type	Location
3/31/2021	3/31/2021	Ascent Funding	1 Acquired - II	Corporation	California
00/00/0000	00/00/0000	Paycheck Protection Program	Subscribe to see more	Government	DC
00/00/0000	00/00/0000	Goal Structured Solutions	Subscribe to see more	Asset/Investment Management	California
00/00/0000	00/00/0000	Iowa Student Loan	Subscribe to see more	Non-Profit Foundation	Iowa

First funding	3/31/2021	00/00/0000	00/00/0000	00/00/0000
Last Funding	3/31/2021	00/00/0000	00/00/0000	00/00/0000
Investor	Ascent Funding	Paycheck Protection Program	Goal Structured Solutions	Iowa Student Loan
Rounds	1 Acquired - II	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more
Board Seats
Type	Corporation	Government	Asset/Investment Management	Non-Profit Foundation
Location	California	DC	California	Iowa

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