Afterpay sales doubled to $21 billion in FY21

Sales at ASX-listed buy now pay later (BNPL) fintech Afterpay passed $20 billion a year ahead of schedule.

The company’s (ASX: APT) continued astonishing growth, revealed in the 2021 financial year figures today, comes as the fintech announced a proposed sale and merger with US-listed payments company Square for A$39 billion.

Afterpay posted FY21 underlying sales of $21.1 billion, a 90% increase on FY20. The business had set itself a target of $20bn by FY22. Underlying sales were up 102% on a constant currency basis.

Source: Afterpay

FY21 group revenue (unaudited) hit $925 million, grew 78% on FY20 (88% higher in constant currency), with merchant revenue increasing by 90% (102% constant currency) to $822 million

Active customers during FY21 grew to 16.2 million, a 63% increase on 9.9m in June 2020. Around 25,000 new customers sign on globally every day. North America now has 10.5 million active customers, the UK, 2.1 million. The platform now has more than 100,000 merchants, increasing by 77% on 12 months earlier, with growth up 501% in the UK to 6,700, and 148% in North America to 28,400.

In Australia, underlying sales grew 44% to $9.4 billion. Following the launch of the ANZ Afterpay Card, more than 1.4m customers added it to their digital wallet.

ANZ represented ~60% of group underlying sales in FY20, reducing to ~45% in FY21 (decreasing from approximately 49% in H1 FY21 to approximately 41% in H2 FY21

Afterpay’s unaudited gross losses expected to be below 1% as a percentage of underlying sales and broadly in line with FY20. Net transaction losses 15 as a percentage of underlying sales are expected to be slightly above FY20 due to a lower contribution from late fees.

The company said its loss performance “has been maintained notwithstanding a shift in underlying sales and revenue mix from the more mature ANZ markets to newer and initially higher loss North American and European regions”.

Afterpay was founded by Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen in Sydney in 2014 before listing on the ASX two years later. It launched in the US in 2018, and then in the UK in 2019 as Clearpay. The business then moved into Europe in 2021.