AP Ventures Limited (APV), the Australian-based investment company, today announced it has completed its investment into Chinese based buy now, pay later company, “Happay”. APV invested US$10m to acquire a 20% stake in the business. Happay allows consumers to pay for their purchases in four payments (one upfront payment and three monthly payments thereafter) with no upfront fees or interest. The business is initially focused on the offline market and reaching merchants and consumers through partnering with leading shopping mall groups in China. “We are very excited by the opportunity to partner with Happay and launch a buy now, pay later solution into China. There is a strong need for an offline solution which partners with merchants and provides flexibility to consumers” said Hein Vogel, APV CEO. “We are delighted to become a partner in Happay and with the opportunity to open up the interest free BNPL segment in China, which is an enormous market.”
Happay recently launched its product into five malls across China and has seen strong interest from merchants interested in deploying Happay’s solution in store. Consumers will benefit from the product which is unique in the Chinese market as it does not charge interest or any upfront fees to consumers. The business, which launched in July this year, has already signed up a number of retailers, including Meland, ReBLUE, LuLuAlways, Gymboree and BetterKids Happay was started by two founders – Tang Yang and Jerry Chen – who have expertise in fintech and retail. They saw an opportunity to build a solution which would be embraced by shopping malls, merchants and consumers. “After much research on our local market we were convinced that there is a huge opportunity for an instalments business in China” said Jerry Chan, CEO and co-founder of Happay. “We are excited to partner with AP Ventures as we build out our business and develop our offering”. Afterpay and other investors (including Thorney, ICM and Regal) contributed further capital to APV as it continues to build its investment portfolio. APV undertook a second capital raise in August, taking its total capital raised in 2020 to $65m.