Laybuy has been bought by a Swedish firm, that says the service will be relaunched. Photo: Screenshot
Laybuy is coming back.
The buy-now-pay-later provider announced in June it was reporting receivers, blaming an economic downturn that had been more drawn-out than expected.
Customers were told they could not make new transactions from that point.
Swedish fintech company Klarna said on Wednesday it had bought Laybuy's asserts in New Zealand and planned to relaunch the service in the coming weeks.
The company said Laybuy's customers would "benefit from a revitalised platform".
"Laybuy established itself as a cherished brand in New Zealand and we're excited to build on those foundations to take Laybuy to new heights under the Klarna umbrella," said Klarna chief commercial officer David Sykes said.
"We have some truly exciting plans and can't wait to begin sharing them with consumers and merchants."
Over half-a-million New Zealanders had opened a Laybuy account, and payments were accepted at more than 10,000 merchants.
Klarna said it would begin to connect with Laybuy customers to tell them what was happening.
In June, Laybuy founder Gary Rohloff said the economic downturn had been more drawn-out than expected and had hurt the business.
"I am absolutely heartbroken at today's decision to request the appointment of receivers to the Laybuy Group," he had said in a statement.
"This is a devastating time for the Laybuy team, and I will be doing everything I can to support them as we go through this process."
He said the business had been working "incredibly" hard to execute a plan to achieve profitability after years of rapid growth.
"While we have been making good progress over the last two years, the economic downturn has been longer than we expected, and this had had a significant impact on the retail sector in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom."
Buy-now-pay-later boomed after the pandemic, but a number of companies have hit trouble as interest rates increased and consumer spending slowed.
Laybuy listed on the Australian stock exchange in 2020 and shares traded as high as $AU2.30.
But they had dropped to $AU0.6c before a decision was made last year to delist.