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Affirm launches in the UK as ‘buy now, pay later’ market faces regulatory overhaul

Buy now, pay later giant Affirm is launching in the U.K., its first market outside of North America.

We’ve known for some time that the U.K. was likely going to be Affirm’s next port-of-call outside the U.S. and Canada, with the firm’s chief revenue officer Wayne Pommen going on record to say that it would be targeting markets where some of its largest existing partners already have a presence. For its U.K. launch, there aren’t any of the same big-name brands it has domestically, but the fact that it counts the likes of Amazon, Shopify, and Apple as customers in the U.S. means that it wouldn’t be a huge stretch to expand such commercial partnerships to the U.K. For now, though, Affirm is going to market with the like of flight booking site Alternative Airlines and payments processor Fexco, with “additional UK and international brands expected to follow.” In the build up to today’s launch, Affirm told TechCrunch that it has already hired in the region of 30 employees, including Ruth Spratt who’s leading the local charge, while it’s also looking to add to its headcount through the remainder of the year.

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