BNPL Platform Sezzle Starts Trading on Nasdaq

Sezzle, the digital payments platform, started trading on Nasdaq on Thursday (Aug. 17), according to the company.

To kick off the occasion, Sezzle executives rang the opening bell to start trading for the day at 9 a.m. ET. In an email to PYMNTS, the company said its shares would be listed under the ticker symbol SEZL and complement the existing common stock trading on the Australian Securities Exchange under the symbol SZL.

The establishment of Sezzle on the Nasdaq is not a public offering or issuance of new Sezzle common shares, the company said in filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Earlier this month, Sezzle was named one of CNBC’s top FinTech companies for 2023 and has become one of the big players in the buy now, pay later (BNPL) space.

Anyone who has experienced the woes of high-interest rates and credit cards knows the importance of payments platform like Sezzle. Consumers are turning to BNPL payment options such as Sezzle’s to manage their budgets and avoid such issues.

In its second-quarter earnings, Sezzle reported its fourth consecutive profitable quarter after losing $1 billion in the past few years as investors pivoted away from tech companies. Sezzle has made several significant changes within its company, including launching its Pay Anywhere subscription and Pay-in-2. As of the end of July, the company had nearly 190,000 subscribers across its Premium and Pay Anywhere subscriptions. Sezzle is accepted by major retailers such as Target and is just one player in a growing alternative-payments industry.

Sherdeep Singh, CEO at Parts Avatar, Canada’s largest online auto parts store, only praised his partner Sezzle.

“Everything Sezzle does involves working with our team to help achieve our goals. We love partnering with the Sezzle team to deliver — whether that’s acquiring new customers, tapping into Sezzle’s marketing capabilities, driving conversions, or just increasing our brand equity through the partnership,” said Singh in a statement.

Their Pay-in-4 product, which allows shoppers to pay for their purchases in installments, has been a particularly enticing product that’s been used by more than 500,000 Canadians.

Charlie Youakim, CEO of Sezzle, is confident that banks will increasingly seek to acquire their smaller FinTech partners in the future.

“Banks are not great at digital, though they’re getting better at it,” he says. “If you’re in the innovation space as a FinTech, and you can prove profitability and prove growth, you’re likely to prove to be an attractive acquisition target for a bank.”

Youakim also discussed the findings of the recent report “The Credit Economy: How Younger Consumers Make Credit Decisions.” The study found that the short-term, interest-free monthly payments offered by BNPL plans were highest amongst millennials, with more than 20% of the surveyed age group having used the product in the 90 days before the survey.