Affirm Expands BNPL Through New Partnerships With Fanatics and FreshBooks

Affirm Holdings Inc. is broadening its footprint in the payments sector through two new partnerships, Fanatics and FreshBooks, aimed at deepening its presence among both consumers and small businesses.

The San Francisco–based financial technology company announced Thursday (Oct. 16) that it will integrate buy now, pay later (BNPL) options into Fanatics’ online sports merchandise platform, allowing shoppers to split purchases such as jerseys and collectibles into biweekly or monthly payments. Affirm said the offering will extend to more than 180 additional team and league stores across Fanatics’ network, including select locations in the U.K. and Canada.

“From shorter-term payments for everyday merch to longer monthly plans that let fans spread out payments for big collectibles, it’s all about giving shoppers more choice and control at checkout,” Pat Suh, Affirm’s SVP of revenue, said in a statement.

Fanatics joins Affirm’s network of more than 375,000 merchant partners. Affirm emphasized that its payment plans come with no hidden or late fees and no compounding interest, underscoring the company’s pitch of transparency as a differentiator in the crowded BNPL market. The move comes as the payment option remains relatively niche, with new PYMNTS Intelligence data revealing that only 8.3% of consumers use BNPL for non-grocery retail transactions. (An even smaller share, 3.8%, uses BNPL to purchase groceries.)

Separately, Freshbooks, a Toronto-based financial software platform serving small businesses, announced Thursday that it has partnered with Affirm. FreshBooks customers in the U.S. and Canada can now offer clients the ability to pay invoices through Affirm, providing flexible installment plans that start as low as 0% APR.

The deal positions Affirm to capture growing demand for alternative payment methods among small business owners and freelancers, a market that has been slower to adopt consumer-style financing tools.

“Small business owners need tools that match how clients want to pay, which is why we’re thrilled to offer Affirm directly within FreshBooks Payments invoices,” Andrew Gunner, head of product at FreshBooks, commented.

B2B use cases mark an underutilized opportunity for embedded financing tools like BNPL, with the added complexities of business transactions slowing the technology’s growth.

These moves come as Affirm looks to expand in advance of the busy holiday season. In recent weeks, the company has added a 0% annual percentage rate (APR) promotional event and partnered with Ace Hardware.