‘Buy Now Pay Later’ company Atome partners digital travel platform Agoda

By Edil Corneille

Digital travel platform Agoda has launched a regional partnership with Asia’s ‘buy now pay later’ (BNPL) platform Atome to offer flexible instalment payment options for accommodation bookings first in Singapore and Malaysia, before rolling out to include eight additional markets in Southeast Asia and APAC in 2021.

Under the partnership starting from December 21, travellers in Singapore and Malaysia can pay for their accommodation in three, easy zero interest payments with no additional charges or service fees by selecting Atome at checkout on agoda.com or the Agoda mobile app.

In Singapore and Malaysia, Agoda’s platform offers over 34,000 properties to suit all budgets and travel occasions. This new payment option for Agoda travellers will expand to include additional Southeast Asian (Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam) markets as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan next year.

Agoda Vice President of Commercial Finance, Darren Makarem said, “We are always looking for innovative ways to help more people access travel, using tech to simplify the search, booking and payment processes. The launch of our instalment payment offering with Atome will enable Singaporean and Malaysian travellers who might have previously found it inconvenient to pay for their booking in one lump sum to spread the costs over multiple payments by choosing to pay with Atome, without incurring additional costs.”

David Chen, CEO of Atome said, “This marks the start of a truly exciting regional partnership with Agoda. Travel and tourism supports so many businesses, livelihoods and economies across Asia. We’re truly humbled to play our part in helping to boost domestic tourism by introducing buy now, pay later payment flexibility and convenience on the Agoda platform today. As more borders in Asia re-open for travel in 2021, our regional partnership will allow even more Agoda travellers to enjoy this payment convenience and flexibility at checkout, improving the customer experience.”

Singapore-based Atome launched its service in December 2019 and now partners over 2,000 online and offline retailers including Sephora, Zara, Marks & Spencer, IUIGA and iStudio across verticals such as fashion, beauty, lifestyle, homeware and travel.