Today, I welcome back to the show Arad Levertov, CEO and co-founder of Sunbit (I last had him on the show in 2019), one of the leaders in offline buy-now-pay-later. From 2,000 retail locations in 2019 to nearly 30,000 across verticals like auto repair, dental, and veterinary services, Sunbit has achieved tremendous growth. But what I found most impressive is this: a 90% approval rate combined with low single-digit default rates.

Arad reveals the secret behind these remarkable metrics lies not just in sophisticated AI-powered underwriting, but in their holistic approach that includes strategic merchant selection, gamified associate training, personalized offers, and a customer-first philosophy with zero fees. Now serving over 4.5 million customers and approaching $400 million in revenue while reaching GAAP profitability, Sunbit demonstrates how the right blend of technology and human elements can revolutionize offline lending.

In this podcast you will learn:

The highlights for Sunbit over the last six years.
Why they have remained focused on the offline space.
The different verticals they have targeted.
How their lending process works.
How they are able to approve 90% of their borrowers.
Why the key to their success is the associates in the physical stores.
Attributes of the 10% of borrowers they decline.
Their average default rate.
How they decide which merchants to bring on their platform.
How Sunbit makes money.
How they are growing their merchant base.
What their partnership with Stripe looks like.
How they are partnering with Checkout.com.
How Arad views the competitive moat he has built at Sunbit.
What they are doing differently when it comes to collections.
Their expansion plans for the future.

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Arad Levertov, CEO of Sunbit, on creating an offline BNPL leader