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Adyen Partners with Klarna as Acquiring Bank

Adyen Partners with Klarna as Acquiring Bank
  • Adyen and Klarna are extending their partnership, with Adyen agreeing to serve as the acquiring bank for Klarna.
  • The two fintechs first partnered ten years ago, when Adyen started offering Klarna’s buy now, pay later technology to its customers.
  • Klarna has evolved from BNPL into a shopping marketplace and currently hosts 500,000 merchants on its platform marketing to 150 million shoppers who transact two million times each day.

Netherlands-based fintech platform Adyen and Sweden-based ecommerce solutions provider and shopping platform Klarna are doubling down on their partnership. The two announced this week that Klarna will leverage Adyen’s acquiring capabilities to power card payments for its 150 million consumers and 500,000 retail partners across the globe.

The fintechs’ initial partnership dates back ten years, when Adyen began offering Klarna’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) technology to its customers. The new acquiring bank agreement will begin in Europe, North America, and Asia in 2024.

“Klarna has, in many ways, revolutionized the digital shopping experience,” said Adyen Co-founder and Co-CEO Pieter van der Does. “I am proud to say we are now joining forces in a partnership set out to simplify payments and shopping in our respective areas of expertise. Adyen’s financial technology platform combined with Klarna’s various consumer offerings will raise the standard of payments and consumer experiences worldwide.”

Adyen was founded in 2006 and offers payment acceptance, embedded payments, virtual card capabilities, authentication, risk management, insights, and more. Among the company’s corporate clients are Meta, Uber, H&M, eBay, and Microsoft.

“Adyen, a world-class financial technology platform for businesses with global ambitions, aligns seamlessly with Klarna’s role as the preferred payments network and shopping assistant for consumers and retailers worldwide,” said Klarna Co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siematkowski. “In our journey towards strengthening our global commerce offerings, Adyen will play an integral role as our trusted partner.”

Originally launched as a BNPL technology provider, Klarna has evolved into a shopping marketplace similar to Amazon or Walmart. The company works with more than half a million retail partners who list goods across a range of categories. Klarna counts 150 million shoppers– 40 million of which are U.S. based– who make two million transactions on its platform each day.

Earlier this year, Klarna teamed up with Open AI to leverage ChatGPT to help enhance the shopping experience to power a product recommendation engine. Klarna was founded in 2005 and is now live in 45 countries.