Block Closes $29B Afterpay Acquisition, Rolls Out BNPL to Square Sellers
Block Inc. officially closed its $29 billion acquisition of Australian BNPL provider Afterpay on January 31, 2022, with integration into Square's platform beginning February 1, 2022. The rollout made Afterpay's buy now, pay later service available to Square Online sellers in the U.S. and Australia through Square's dashboard and developer platform. Merchants receiving Afterpay payments earn instant earnings at standard processing rates through a promotional period ending May 10, 2022.
Afterpay was also integrated into Cash App, broadening Block's consumer finance offering. The acquisition targets Gen Z and Millennial consumers, who represent approximately 75% of BNPL users. Afterpay's co-CEOs joined Block's leadership team as part of the transaction.
The deal significantly expands Block's embedded finance capabilities, combining merchant acquiring, consumer payments, and installment lending into a single ecosystem.
- Establishes Block as a vertically integrated embedded finance platform combining merchant payments and consumer BNPL lending
- Intensifies competition with PayPal/Pay Later and Stripe's BNPL integrations, accelerating BNPL commoditization at point of sale
- Signals that major payment processors see BNPL as a core embedded finance feature rather than a standalone product category