La Banque Postale acquires fintech Joe to boost its BNPL offer

La Banque Postale has just made official the acquisition of the technology of French FinTech Joe, a specialist in BNPL (Buy-Now-Pay-Later). This acquisition represents a new strategic step in the French bank's positioning on a market still considered as high potential.

FACTS

• The acquisition of Joe's technology is being carried out via Django, the consumer credit subsidiary of La Banque Postale Consumer Finance. Although the deal actually dates back to November 2022, La Banque Postale is now communicating on the effective integration of the offer within its group.

• Joe will thus be directly integrated into the Django offer. However, unlike this B2B2C brand, it will be aimed directly at end consumers, with the promise of offering them a flexible, simple and responsible solution.

• Django's B2C offering should thus take the form of a split payment application similar to the one deployed by Joe so far. The latter is based on :

  • reimbursing subsequent expenses (within the last 30 days),

  • issuing virtual cards to pay for purchases in installments.

• Joe "reimburses" expenses ranging from 100 to 3000 euros, with limits on the amounts set in a personalized way according to the debt capacity of each customer. The service is subject to a 2.5% commission. 

• Joe's teams (composed of about fifteen employees) are taken over in their entirety as part of this takeover.

CHALLENGES

• Strengthen an existing offer : La Banque Postale had already positioned itself on the BNPL market with Django. Launched in March 2022, Django has actually been operating since last July and currently has nearly 150 merchant partners. 

• Capitalizing on an innovative player : La Banque Postale underlines, through this acquisition, its ambition to work in conjunction with promising FinTechs. Joe was launched in January 2021 and currently has over 200,000 users and nearly 500 partner merchants.

• Defending its incubation efforts : Joe was incubated at the international gas pedal Y Combinator, but also went through the FinTech and AssurTech incubator platform58, launched by La Banque Postale itself in 2019.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• BNPL's solutions were presented at their launch as a more responsible alternative to traditional consumer credit offers. However, their growth has finally revealed a concrete fact: although they are alternatives, these solutions also run the risk of overindebtedness for their most vulnerable customers. 

• In order to limit the abuses, the representatives of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission of the European Union have reached an agreement on the new European framework for consumer credit at the end of 2022. A regulation that does not change the fact that BNPL is now integrated alongside the historical offers, as a full-fledged financing solution for consumers.