Rent-A-Center Owner Targets Earned Wage Access With Brigit Acquisition

Upbound Group, owner of Rent-A-Center and Acima, has completed its purchase of Brigit.

The deal, finalized Friday (Jan. 31), adds Brigit’s financial health technology to Upbound’s offerings, the company said in a news release.

“The combined company has significantly greater scale, currently serving approximately four million active customers, including Brigit’s over one million active paying subscribers and almost one million free subscribers,” the release said.

With the acquisition, first announced in December, Upbound says it is able to meet additional consumer needs, such as offering earned wage access and credit building products.

The purchase also lets Upbound offer financial wellness solutions and educational resources, while Brigit’s cash flow underwriting data and tech stack can provide Acima and Rent-A-Center with better fraud prevention and risk management solutions.

“By combining Brigit’s innovative technology, customer-centric approach and talented team with our company, we are enhancing our ability to create a more personalized customer experience and to deliver, at the right time and through the right channels, a wider range of targeted solutions for consumers,” Upbound CEO Mitch Fadel said in the announcement.

Upbound Group was launched two years ago when Rent-A-Center (RAC) rebranded into a holding company with that name. It includes the Acima virtual lease-to-own business that RAC acquired in 2020 and the Acceptance Now flexible leasing operation.

Upbound Chief Financial Officer Fahmi Karam told PYMNTS at the time that the company holds a philosophy of “moving [customers] up the credit chain, if you will, giving them more financing solutions, more alternatives, and giving them a little bit more financial confidence.”

The company’s embrace of buy now, pay later (BNPL) comes at a time when nearly two-thirds of consumers have used this payment method to manage cash flow, according to PYMNTS Intelligence research.

“And more consumers use BNPL strategically than out of necessity. The average transaction among BNPL users is $926,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this month. The research also found that a notable majority of consumers are happy with these plans, with upwards of three-quarters of BNPL users reporting high levels of satisfaction.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) earlier this month issued a report on BNPL, saying that “the importance of BNPL in the credit profiles of BNPL borrowers underlines the need for further research to understand how this growing financial product causally impacts borrowers’ financial health.” Findings from the regulator found that more than 60% of BNPL users held simultaneous BNPL loans.

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