What Squares' acquisition of Afterpay will mean for startups VCs weigh-in on the state the 'buy now and pay later' segmentSquare announced that it had acquired Afterpay for $29 billion on Sunday. Alex continued to follow up yesterday, providing more details about why Square and Afterpay made sense. However, we wanted to interview prominent VCs about the implications for the startup market.The Square deal is a good example of the huge amount of money and interest that has been flowing into the BNPL markets. VCs invested in companies such as Alma ($59.4 Million, January 2021), Scalapay (48 million, Jan 2021), Wisetack (19 million, February 2021), Zilch (80 million April 2021), Dividio (30 million, June 2021) and Zilch ($80million, April 2021).We reached out to most investors who were bullish on Afterpay and Square integration. However, they were less enthusiastic about the potential for new consumer BNPL business opportunities.Klarna raised $639m at a post money valuation of $45.6billion in June after raising $1billion in March at an post-money value of $31billion.Some major public companies are also interested in the service. PayPal has been aggressively pushing BNPL services to merchants who offer them as a payment option, despite a slow start. Apple Pay is reportedly developing its own BNPL service.To find out what Commerce Ventures founder and GP Dan Rosen thought about the deal and what it could mean for startups and other BNPL companies, we reached out to Jake Gibson, Better Tomorrow Ventures partner Jake Gibson, and TX Zhuo, Fika Ventures partner, at Bain Capital Ventures.What are the main takeaways? While buy now and pay later might be effective in driving retail conversion, scale is important, and long-term margins for BNPL startups look slim.Let's hear from the venture community.The venture viewWhy is the BNPL Market so Hot?
