Atome Review

Atome is a buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider based in Singapore and sold across Southeast Asia. Shoppers split a purchase into three interest-free payments, or choose a longer plan for a fee. The merchant gets paid the order value less Atome's fee and does not carry the risk if the shopper stops paying. This review uses Singapore as its basis, where the operating company is Apaylater Financials Pte. Ltd., licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as a Major Payment Institution. Atome does not publish merchant pricing. Its help centre says there is no setup fee and a per-transaction merchant discount rate (MDR) agreed by quote. The Singapore merchant contract template on its merchant portal, dated November 2020, runs for 12 months and renews automatically. It also adds refund, cross-border and lead-generation fees, lets Atome hold a reserve, and bars the merchant from engaging another BNPL provider without Atome's consent. Atome is part of Atome Financial, a unit of Singapore's Advance Intelligence Group. In September 2026 Grab agreed to buy 60% of Atome Financial for US$1.49 billion. The deal is expected to complete by the third quarter of 2027, subject to approvals. Shoppers rate the Singapore app highly, though a small Trustpilot sample is mostly negative.

What Atome is

Atome is a buy now, pay later provider run from Singapore. Its Singapore operating company, Apaylater Financials Pte. Ltd. (registration number 201936265H), was registered in 2019, and the Singapore app first appeared on Apple's App Store in January 2020. Atome describes itself as part of Atome Financial, which in turn belongs to Advance Intelligence Group, a Singapore technology group founded in 2016 that also includes ADVANCE.AI. Atome Financial also includes Kredit Pintar, an Indonesian digital lender, and offers cards, savings, insurance and loans in some markets.

On 15 September 2026, Grab announced definitive agreements to buy a controlling 60% of Atome Financial (legal name Neuroncredit Pte. Ltd.) for US$1.49 billion in cash, according to the release Grab filed with the US SEC. Completion is expected by the third quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals. Grab has also agreed to buy the remaining 40% about two years after that. Until the deal closes, Advance Intelligence Group remains the parent, and Grab says Atome's management team will stay in place. Expect product and distribution changes after completion. Nothing has been announced yet about merchant terms.

Where it operates

In September 2026, Grab's release listed five markets for Atome Financial: Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. In Thailand, Atome Financial holds a minority stake in a joint venture. An Atome release of November 2022 listed eight markets, including Hong Kong, Vietnam and mainland China. Atome paused its Hong Kong business in early 2023, with 31 March 2023 the last date for new transactions, according to Marketing-Interactive, which quoted the company. In July 2023 an Atome spokesperson told Tech in Asia, as reported by Vietnamese outlet Dân trí, that it had begun winding down its Vietnam operations in May 2023. This review is written from the Singapore market. Rates, fees and terms in other countries are set by separate local entities and may differ. A Singapore account settles in Singapore dollars only. Singapore-registered shoppers can now also use the app at in-store merchants in Malaysia.

How it works for the merchant

The shopper picks Atome at checkout or scans your Atome QR code at the till, then approves the purchase in the Atome app or with a one-time code. In Singapore they must be 18 or over, verify their identity with Singpass MyInfo, and link a debit or credit card. Spending limits are S$1,000 on a debit card and S$3,000 on a credit card, and the minimum order is S$1.50. Atome's help centre gives two different accounts of the first payment. One page says it is taken at the point of purchase. Another says it is debited one day after the purchase. Either way, the remaining payments follow every 30 days.

Behind the checkout, Atome's Singapore merchant contract template is a receivables purchase. Each order creates a deferred-payment contract between you and the shopper. You sell and assign the shopper's repayments to a factor Atome nominates, and that factor pays you the order value less fees (cl. 3). The contract states that Atome does not lend to you or the shopper (cl. 3.2). In practice, you are paid regardless of whether the shopper repays. You keep the risk on refunds, disputes, chargebacks and your own breaches, and Atome can make you buy back the debt in those cases (cl. 10).

Pricing

Atome does not publish merchant rates. Its Singapore help centre, checked on 3 November 2026, says there are no setup fees and that merchants pay an MDR on each transaction, quoted by its business development team. Rates are quoted per account, so we list no rate here. The only Atome-hosted pricing structure we found is the commercial schedule in its Singapore merchant contract template, dated November 2020. Every figure in it is left blank to be filled in at signing:

• Atome Fee: a percentage of the purchase price plus a fixed Singapore-dollar amount on every transaction, plus GST if applicable.
• Refund Fee: a percentage of each refunded amount plus a fixed fee, plus GST if applicable. Refunds must be requested within 60 days of the sale.
• Cross-Border Fee (optional): a percentage of the purchase price when the shopper's payment method is based in a different country from your payout bank account.
• Atome Lead-Gen Fee (optional): an extra percentage on sales that start with a shopper sent to your site from the Atome platform, such as its in-app store directory.
• Chargebacks and card-scheme assessments: passed through in full, with Atome's related costs.

The template also lets Atome raise these fees on at least 15 days' written notice if a card scheme, payment agent or other third party increases its charges to Atome (cl. 12.2). Merchant-funded discounts reduce both the sale amount and the fee. Ask for the lead-generation fee to be stated even if it is switched off, because Atome's app directory is part of what it sells to merchants. Third-party payment gateways that resell Atome publish their own prices for it. Those are the gateway's prices, not Atome's, so we do not quote them.

Payouts, refunds and reserves

Atome publishes no settlement timetable for Singapore. The 2020 contract template leaves settlement as 'T+x' days for undisputed payments, in Singapore dollars, to be set at signing. Atome's Philippine merchant help centre promises payment within three working days of the purchase. That is a Philippine term, not a Singapore one, so do not assume it applies to a Singapore account. The Merchant Center shows a transaction as Confirmed once the shopper's first payment succeeds and as Settled once Atome has paid you. Atome can email a daily payout report. Changing your payout bank account needs a bank statement. The help centre says the change takes one to two business days, while the 2020 template asks for at least 15 business days' notice.

You start refunds from the Merchant Center, in full or in part. The template requires a refund within 60 days of the sale, otherwise Atome may reject it, and says Atome processes the request within seven business days. The help centre says Atome refunds the shopper in one to two days and that the money can take 10 to 15 business days to reach them. Refunds and refund fees are netted off your settlements. If they remain unpaid for more than 14 days, Atome can demand payment within three business days. The template also lets Atome withhold a percentage of your settlements in a reserve account, and ask for further security, to cover what you might owe (cl. 9.2-9.3). Ask what reserve level applies to you.

Contract terms

The template runs for 12 months and renews automatically for further 12-month terms unless either side gives written notice at least 30 calendar days before the term ends (cl. 21.1-21.2). It includes an exclusivity clause (cl. 14). While the contract is in force, you may not, without Atome's written consent, engage another party to provide services similar to Atome's, a category the contract defines to include "any buy-now-pay-later business". Atome may change terms that apply to all merchants without your consent or prior notice when it launches new products or when the law requires a change. For legally required changes it says it will tell you within seven business days of implementing them (cl. 23.2). Atome's total liability is capped at 50% of the fees you paid in the previous 12 months (cl. 16.2). Atome can transfer the contract without your consent. You cannot transfer it without Atome's. Disputes go to arbitration at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre. This template is dated November 2020. We could not see a current signed version, so treat these as the terms to negotiate from, not the terms you will necessarily get.

What your customers pay

Late fees affect how shoppers feel about checking out with Atome at your store, so they are worth knowing. As of November 2026, Atome's Singapore help centre lists an admin fee of S$15 for each overdue payment on orders under S$1,000 and S$30 on larger orders, effective since 1 May 2023. Fees are charged per overdue payment, not per failed deduction attempt. The account is suspended until everything is paid, and Atome does not offer deferral. An older help article still mentions a minimum fee of S$15. Repayments by American Express carry a S$1 card processing fee after the first payment. The fee is waived for Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay. Pay-in-6 carries a one-time fee of up to 3% including GST. One help-centre table states it as a flat 3%. Pay-in-9 and Pay-in-12 carry 0.75% of the purchase value per month.

Licensing and regulation

The MAS Financial Institutions Directory lists Apaylater Financials Pte. Ltd., of 8 Cross Street, Singapore, as a Major Payment Institution. Its licence covers account issuance, domestic and cross-border money transfer and merchant acquisition, and Atome's footer gives the licence number as PS20200511. That licence covers payment services, not lending. Atome's own BNPL Code page says "The BNPL scheme is a service that is not regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore." Instead, Atome says it abides by the industry BNPL Code of Conduct administered by the Singapore Fintech Association, which, in Atome's summary, caps all fees, including late fees, and rules out compounding. The association's Registry of Accredited BNPL Service Providers lists Apaylater Financials Pte. Ltd. (doing business as Atome), with accreditation effective 1 May 2024 and expiring 30 April 2027. Atome says shoppers' money is held in trust accounts at a licensed Singapore bank, separate from its own funds. In Indonesia, Indonesia's financial regulator (OJK) licensed PT Atome Finance Indonesia as a finance company in July 2021, when it took that name from PT Mega Finadana.

Scale and finances

According to Atome's own release of August 2025, Atome Financial reported audited operating income of US$236 million for 2024, up 63%, and a full-year profit. Atome processed more than US$2 billion of gross merchandise volume that year. Grab's September 2026 release says Atome Financial has served 25 million cumulative transacted users and works with more than 30,000 brands. The user figure is based on unaudited management accounts. Grab also cites a gross loan portfolio of about US$1 billion as of June 2026. Atome Financial names Standard Chartered, HSBC, DBS, SMBC and BlackRock among its institutional funding partners.

Reputation and complaints

Shoppers rate the app well. As of 3 November 2026, Atome SG has 4.8 out of 5 from about 55,900 ratings on Singapore's App Store. Atome also cites a Sensor Tower award naming it the most popular BNPL app in Asia in 2025. Trustpilot is thin and negative: 2.2 from 17 reviews dated June 2024 to September 2026, 70% of them one-star, on an unclaimed profile. Complaints cover late fees, account suspensions, repeated collection calls and template replies from support. We found no published reviews from merchants. Atome's footer lists Singapore business hours of 09:30 to 18:30 on weekdays, and shoppers contact support by in-app chat. Our searches of MAS, OJK and news sources found no enforcement action or lawsuit naming Atome or its operating companies.

Who Atome suits

Atome suits Singapore retailers with baskets from tens to a few thousand dollars, especially in fashion, beauty, electronics, travel and lifestyle. For these businesses an instalment option known to young, app-first shoppers can lift conversion, and in-store QR acceptance matters. It is less suited to a merchant that wants to compare published rates, offer several BNPL brands at once, or keep the option to leave at short notice. Before signing, get in writing the MDR, the refund, cross-border and lead-generation fees, the settlement days, any reserve percentage, and whether the exclusivity and auto-renewal clauses apply. Watch for changes once Grab's purchase completes.