Australia’s Afterpay Lands $200M From US Tech Investor Coatue

Australian buy-now, pay-later platform Afterpay Touch notched $200 million from U.S. technology investor Coatue Management, Afterpay announced in a press release on Wednesday (Nov. 13).

Coatue will acquire new Afterpay shares at $28.50, representing a 2.4 percent discount to the last closing share price on Tuesday (Nov. 12) of $29.19 per share.

The new funds will be earmarked for global platform expansion. In connection with the investment, the two firms will form a strategic partnership “where Coatue will leverage its data science expertise to support Afterpay in its development of retail data analytics and future data-driven products.” Subject to a formal agreement, Coatue and Afterpay will also collaborate on tools and capabilities.

The deal was announced at Afterpay’s annual general shareholder meeting in Melbourne on Wednesday, where the company also shared revenue and growth data. Also announced was the appointment of a new U.S.-based director, Gary Briggs, effective Jan. 1, 2020 and a strategic agreement with Mastercard in Australia and New Zealand.

Afterpay reports that it now has more than 6 million users and close to 40,000 retail merchants. In October, the business said it had 15,000 new customers a day.

The company said it had global underlying sales of $2.7 billion in the four-month period to October 2019, a 110 percent increase compared to the previous corresponding period. Annual underlying sales are in excess of $8.5 billion.

“In Australia and New Zealand, customers who joined Afterpay during FY15-17 are now purchasing, on average, approximately 22 times per year,” the release said.

Afterpay was co-founded in 2014 by Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen, and in June 2017 merged with Touchcorp to become Afterpay Touch. Afterpay offers pay later for retail while Touch offers pay now for retail, mobility and health services, according to its website.

Since launching health services last year, Afterpay is now being offered in over 2,500 practices in the dental and optical space nationally.

In July, Afterpay notched $221.08 million in new capital via a share placement that involved Hancock and both co-founders selling a total of 4.5 million shares at A$23 apiece for the equivalent of A$103 million.