The startup scaled rapidly during the 2021 e-commerce boom but came crashing down in 2022.Fintech Sezzle is betting on a comeback after a miserable year for not only itself but the wider buy now, pay later market.
The US-based, Australian-listed BNPL was nearly down for the count after a series of setbacks, from a failed acquisition to layoffs to analysts slashing its price target to just $0.01 AUD per share. . Like so many others, the startup took advantage of the fintech bubble — experiencing breakneck growth from the spike in e-commerce and consumer spending during the pandemic — but when that bubble burst in 2022, it took Sezzle, and several other BNPL darlings, out with it.
Sezzle first saw the difficult road ahead in the latter half of 2021 as it watched its stock price drop 74% from late June to the end of the year.In February of 2022, Sezzle announced it would be bought by Zip, another Australian-traded BNPL. The idea was to scale and reach profitability faster together. As Sezzle tried to make the acquisition work, its stock continued to fall., which saved the company $10 million. It continued the cost-cutting frenzy.
With both companies being public, closing the acquisition took longer than expected due to regulatory hurdles and technical integrations. But time was not on Sezzle's side. Eventually, both sides agreed to mutually pull out of the deal in July 2022. from $12 AUD per share to $0.01 AUD per share and stopped covering its stock.
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