‘Buy now, pay later’ Afterpay acquired in $29 billion deal

Square is expanding its global payments empire with its largest acquisition to date.

The financial payments company, whose popular Cash App payment platform counts more than 70 million customers, will acquire Australian company Afterpay in an all-stock deal that values Afterpay at about $29 billion.

Founded in 2015, Afterpay is one of the best known companies — along with Klarna and Affirm — in the fast-growing flexible payments or ‘buy now, pay later’ space, whose growth is being driven largely by younger consumers shopping online. (Flexible payments allows customers to divide payment of retail and online payments into installments.)

[Read More: ‘Buy-now-pay-later’ use soars 81% over last year]

Afterpay serves more than 16 million consumers and nearly 100,000 merchants globally, including major retailers across fashion, homewares, beauty, sporting goods and more, according to Square. Square said it plans to integrate Afterpay with its existing Seller and Cash App, “enabling even the smallest of merchants" the ability to offer buy now, pay later services at checkout, among other offerings.

“Square and Afterpay have a shared purpose,” said Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Square (and founder and CEO of Twitter). “We built our business to make the financial system more fair, accessible, and inclusive, and Afterpay has built a trusted brand aligned with those principles. Together, we can better connect our Cash App and Seller ecosystems to deliver even more compelling products and services for merchants and consumers, putting the power back in their hands.”

Afterpay co-founders Anthony Eisen and Nick Molnar will join Square upon the completion of the deal help lead Afterpay’s respective merchant and consumer businesses, as part of Square’s Seller and Cash App ecosystems.