株式会社ペイディ (Paidy)

Wiki route

This entry sits under payment-firms INDEX. Read it against Rakuten Group financial businesses (Rakuten FG) for peer / contrast context and Three-Layer Structure of Japan's Stablecoin Regulatory Regime (JPYC, USDC, Project Pax) for the broader system / regulatory boundary.

TL;DR

Japan’s first full-scale BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) provider. Established 2008-10 as the former Exchange Corporation Co., Ltd., renamed to Paidy 2018-09 社. Founder Russell Cummer (from the US). 2021-09-07 PayPal Holdings announced an acquisition for about 27 億 dollars (approx. 3000 億円), completed 2022 → became a PayPal Japan subsidiary. A “pay-later” model that allows payment with only an email address + phone number, with payment made later via convenience store, bank transfer, or account debit. About 100 万 merchants (Amazon Japan / SHEIN / Apple Store / Mercari, etc.). The Japanese-version position of the US’s Affirm / Klarna / Afterpay. ^•

1. Company overview

Legal name: 株式会社ペイディ ^• English name: Paidy Inc. Established: 2008-10 (formerly Exchange Corporation Co., Ltd.) ^• Name change: 2018-09 → Paidy ^• Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo (Roppongi) ^• Parent company: PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL, fully subsidiarized 2022 ) ^• Listing: Unlisted (the independent listing path ended with the PayPal subsidiarization) Founder: Russell Cummer (from the US, former Goldman Sachs) ^•

Main service lines

The following table is scoped to public primary sources (the public registry and issuer materials cited in the sources inventory). It restates licence / structure / product boundaries from those materials and does not invent market share, ranking, or unstated numerical claims. ^↗

Key timeline ^•

The following table is scoped to public primary sources (the public registry and issuer materials cited in the sources inventory). It restates licence / structure / product boundaries from those materials and does not invent market share, ranking, or unstated numerical claims. ^↗

Acquisition background: PayPal had a weak consumer presence in the Japanese market and aimed to conquer Japan’s EC by taking in Paidy’s instant credit-screening model based on phone-number authentication and its account-free BNPL UX. The acquisition amount of 27 億 dollars was one of the largest in Japanese fintech history at the time. ^•

2. Business segment map

The following table is scoped to public primary sources (the public registry and issuer materials cited in the sources inventory). It restates licence / structure / product boundaries from those materials and does not invent market share, ranking, or unstated numerical claims. ^↗

Credit-screening model

• Phone number + email authentication: no bank account or credit card registration required, credit decision in as little as a few seconds
• AI scoring: calculates a dynamic credit limit from transaction history / device / behavioral data
• Pay-later collection channels: convenience store / bank transfer / account debit / Pay-easy
• Fee model: merchant-side fees (higher than credit cards) + consumer-side fees for installments (lump-sum is free)

Competitive map

The following table is scoped to public primary sources (the public registry and issuer materials cited in the sources inventory). It restates licence / structure / product boundaries from those materials and does not invent market share, ranking, or unstated numerical claims. ^↗

Global comparison

• US Affirm: listed BNPL, partnered with Amazon US
• Sweden’s Klarna: Europe’s largest BNPL, global expansion
• Australia’s Afterpay: acquired by Block (formerly Square) 2022 (about 290 億 dollars)

Merchant strategy

• Amazon Japan official BNPL: the largest customer-acquisition channel, permanently set up as an Amazon “pay-later” option
• SHEIN / cross-border EC: fashion EC for Gen Z
• Apple Store: penetrating the younger demographic as installment purchasing for iPhone / Mac
• Mercari: a cross of flea market + BNPL (note: Mercari itself also operates Merpay pay-later within mercari-hd, both a competitor and a merchant)

4. Regulation / policy

• Supervisory authority: METI (registered as an Installment Sales Act / small-amount comprehensive credit purchase intermediary operator) + FSA (Payment Services Act related)
• Installment Sales Act amendment response (promulgated 2020-06 , enforced 2021-04 ): newly established the “small-amount comprehensive credit purchase intermediary operator” category → each BNPL company including Paidy became subject to registration. The AI credit-screening model was formally recognized ^•
• Act on the Protection of Personal Information: handling of personal data related to credit screening based on phone-number + email authentication

Related

• mufg · smfg · mizuho-fg · mercari-hd · paypay-fg · sbi-hd
• bnpl-landscape · Installment Sales Act 2020 Amendment

Sources

• Wikipedia: 株式会社ペイディ (https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ペイディ, 2026-05-19 extracted)
• PayPal Holdings 2021-09-07 Press Release: “PayPal to Acquire Paidy” (acquisition amount about 27 億 dollars)
• Paidy official corporate site history page (https://paidy.com/corporate/)
• METI “Act Partially Amending the Installment Sales Act” (promulgated 2020-06 , enforced 2021-04 )

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[!info] Verification status confidence: likely (composed solely of v1.0 public information 2026-05-19). Key figures such as the acquisition amount of 27 億 dollars / establishment 2008-10 / renaming 2018-09 are via Wikipedia + PayPal’s official press release. The executive structure and latest merchant count are subject to point-in-time changes; PayPal parent company’s annual report (10-K) and Paidy’s official materials are the primary sources.