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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
As both a conference producer and a news outlet, we’re always paying close attention to the topics that resonate most with you — our audience of fintech and banking professionals. To wrap up 2024 and brace ourselves of what to expect for 2025, we analyzed readership data to gain valuable insights into the stories, trends, companies, and products that mattered most to the industry this year to create the top 10 posts of 2024.
This list is compiled of posts published in 2024 that garnered the highest number of views and engagement in 2024. From breaking news to big IPOs, these were the stories you found most compelling. So, without further ado, here’s a countdown of the top 10 posts that captured your interest over the past year.
Google Pay is adding Afterpay and Klarna to its checkout flow, complementing its existing partnerships with Affirm and Zip.
Adding more BNPL options at the point of sale will help increase conversion rates and average order values.
By offering four BNPL options, Google Pay solidifies its edge over Amazon, which currently provides Affirm as its sole BNPL provider at checkout.
Google Pay is doubling down on buy now, pay later (BNPL) options at checkout. The company announced today that it is adding Afterpay and Klarna to its checkout flow at select merchants. The move will offer consumers more flexible payment options when they use Google Pay.
“People shop on Google more than a billion times per day, and consumers are increasingly looking for more choice and flexibility when it comes to their payment options,” said Google Pay Senior Director Drew Olson. “By teaming up with pay over time providers like Klarna, we are able to give Google Pay users more payment options when checking out, while providing merchants with another tool to drive growth.”
Adding Afterpay, which has 24 million active users, and Klarna, which has 85 million active users, will not only offer more ways to pay but may also lead to increased conversion rates and higher average order values. Customers are more likely to make larger purchases when offered flexible payment solutions.
“Afterpay’s integration with Google Pay comes at the perfect time as next-gen shoppers are fueling mainstream use of BNPL, mobile commerce, and digital wallet use,” said Afterpay and Cash App Head of Global Partnerships Tanuj Parikh. “We are excited to expand our BNPL to Google’s network, creating the best and most streamlined customer shopping experience that meets all the needs of this younger consumer set.”
While Afterpay is now available on Google Pay, Klarna will launch with select merchants in 2025. The company aims to expand the BNPL options to more merchants in the future.
Today’s news comes about a year after Google unveiled that it partnered with Zip and Affirm, two other major BNPL players, to offer Google Pay users BNPL options. While offering four BNPL options at the online point of sale sounds excessive, not all merchants offer every BNPL option at checkout. The selection of BNPL providers is dictated by the agreements between Google Pay, the BNPL services, and the individual merchants.
By expanding its roster of BNPL options, Google Pay strengthens its competitive edge against Amazon, which currently limits point-of-sale BNPL offerings to Affirm. While the exclusivity agreement between Amazon and Affirm ended last year, Amazon has yet to collaborate with additional BNPL providers. Google Pay’s strategic decision to double its BNPL offerings may prompt Amazon to diversify its own consumer payment options.
After what seems like years of speculation, buy now, pay later (BNPL) leader Klarna has filed for its IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Sweden-based company is being quiet about details, however. Klarna released a five-sentence press release with very little color. “This press release is being made pursuant to, and in accordance with, Rule 135 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and shall not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities,” the release plainly stated. “Any offers, solicitations or offers to buy, or any sales of securities will be made in accordance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act.”
Given its presence in the BNPL space, as well as its lofty valuation, which peaked at almost $46 billion in 2021, there has been a lot of interest in Klarna’s IPO plans. Here are five key things to know about Klarna’s IPO, what it signals for the market, and what it could mean for both investors and customers alike.
The IPO has been in the works for years
Klarna was founded in 2005 and first hinted at an IPO in 2019 in an interview with Bloomberg. At the time, company CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski mentioned that the company was considering an IPO within the next one to two years, depending on market conditions.
Since then, Klarna has seen significant growth. The company added to its BNPL tools in 2020 with the launch of its own shopping platform that hosts half a million retail partners who list goods across a range of categories. Today, Klarna’s retail site counts 150 million shoppers– 40 million of which are U.S. based– who make two million transactions on its platform each day. Overall, the company facilitates two million transactions per day for its 85 million active customers.
Klarna’s valuation peaked at $46 billion, but won’t reach that figure at its IPO
Klarna’s valuation has fluctuated over the past four years. At its peak, the company was valued at $46 billion in June 2021, making it the most valuable private fintech company in Europe. In 2022, however, the company’s valuation dropped to $6.7 billion.
While Klarna has not disclosed the valuation it plans to reach for its pending IPO, Fortune estimates the company could earn a valuation of about $14.6 billion. This figure is based on a move that Klarna shareholder Chrysalis Investments made in October to increase the value of its stake in the company to £120.6 million ($154 million).
Some of Klarna’s competition has already gone public
Klarna’s eventual IPO will follow in the footsteps of some of its competitors in the BNPL space who have already made their public debuts. California-based Affirm went public on the NASDAQ in early 2021 and now holds a market capitalization of $17.7 billion, while Australia-based Afterpay was acquired by Square (now Block, Inc.) in a 2022 deal valued at $29 billion. Sezzle, which originally went public on the Australian Stock Exchange, listed on the NYSE in 2023. Block also owns BNPL pioneer Afterpay, which went public on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2016 before the $29 billion acquisition.
Klarna’s regulatory heat will likely increase
All across the globe, BNPL is not without its criticism. The payments technology has faced backlash because of its propensity to promote irresponsible spending habits. This has led to formal regulation in multiple countries, including the issuance of an interpretive rule from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earlier this year.
As a public company, Klarna will be subject to a higher standard and will face greater scrutiny to not only comply with evolving regulations, but also to create and uphold higher standards of its own to protect its customers. Klarna is already ahead of regulation, however, as the company has already implemented features incluing spending caps, a transparent fee structure, and financial wellness tools.
An IPO offers potential for growth
Going public will offer Klarna access to additional capital that the company can use to fuel expansion. This is particularly important in the U.S., where it competes with Afterpay, Affirm, and PayPal’s BNPL offerings.
The IPO may also enable Klarna to create additional revenue streams by launching more traditional products and personal financial management tools. This expansion could position Klarna into a global financial power player.
This week, Klarna Checkout, also known as KCO, announced its official rebrand as Kustom. The rebrand comes 12 years after the launch of Klarna Checkout, which at the time set a new standard for e-commerce in Northern Europe. The rebrand also arrives months after Klarna sold KCO to a consortium of investors led by BLQ Invest CEO and Founding Partner Kamjar Hajabdolahi.
“Klarna Checkout is very dear to me, and the impact it’s had on Klarna’s journey is immense,” Klarna CEO and Co-Founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski said in June when the divestment was announced. “I’m so pleased it’s finding a new home, with owners who are carefully handpicked to continue to create outstanding value for our merchant partners.”
A new home back then, and now, a new name. As Kustom, the digital checkout solution stands as one of the largest digital checkout providers in Europe. Kustom has 24,000 e-merchants and annual transaction volume of more than $14 billion (150 billion SEK). Kustom will focus on e-merchants and will add to its suite of payment methods, while keeping Klarna a key component of Kustom’s offering. Additionally, Kustom will focus on optimizing the checkout experience and building related services as opposed to offering its own payment methods or credit products.
“Our full focus will now be on our merchants and continuing to develop this great product based on their needs,” Hajabdolahi said. “We have an incredibly strong customer base, we are profitable, and we have secured financing for strategic acquisitions, which provides an excellent foundation. In the coming months, we will put all our efforts into further developing our infrastructure to expand our offering in 2025, including the introduction of new payment methods.”
Here are a trio of top takeaways from the rebrand.
Kustom will start strong
The rebrand comes at a time of strength for the digital checkout platform. The solution has a market share of more than 40% in Sweden and more than 20% across the Nordics. Kustom will also benefit from its new owners who have been credited for their “Buy and Build” strategy when it comes to acquisitions.
Strategic partnership with Stripe
In addition to its rebrand announcement, Kustom also shared news of a new strategic partnership with payments innovator Stripe. Stripe’s platform will be instrumental to Kustom’s plans to introduce new features and payment methods for e-merchants, starting in the first half of 2025.
Continued collaboration with Klarna
Despite the summer sale and the autumn rebrand, Kustom will retain its relationship with Klarna and, in fact, plans to offer Klarna’s payment methods in the future. Also many of the personnel moves accompanying the rebrand reflect more continuation than separation. Jesper Eriksson, previously Country Manager for Klarna in Sweden, will become Chief Commercial Officer for Kustom. Rasmus Fahlander, previously Senior Product Director for Klarna Checkout, will become CPO. Alexander Olsson, former finance director for the U.S. at Klarna, will take the role of CFO.
Xero and Klarna have partnered to allow small businesses to offer buy now, pay later (BNPL) options at checkout, giving consumers more flexible payment choices.
Under the partnership, Xero’s small business clients will have access to BNPL capabilities that may help boost revenue and enable more large-ticket sales.
This collaboration has the potential to help Xero’s small business clients maintain healthy cash flow by getting paid upfront.
Small business accounting software company Xero and global payments network and shopping platform Klarnaannounced this week that they have teamed up.
The deal is essentially a distribution partnership for Klarna, which will help Xero’s small businesses clients accept buy now, pay later (BNPL) payments from their consumers. Xero small business customers in all regions except Australia can offer Klarna at checkout as a payment option, providing a credit card alternative while still getting paid for the goods or services up front.
“We know that maintaining a healthy cash flow is critical to a successful business, and offering more ways to pay supports increased business growth and getting paid faster,” said Xero SVP Payments & Ecosystem Bharathi Ramavarjula. “In fact, our recent research report shows that if a business doesn’t offer customers their preferred way to pay, they are prepared to take their business elsewhere. By enabling our customers with more ways to pay, including Klarna, we can help them retain customers and increase their revenue.”
Klarna’s BNPL tools include a four-payment, interest-free installment plan, a 24-month financing option, and a pay-in-30 day option. Before a customer makes their purchase, Klarna verifies their eligibility and offers transparent terms of the payment. Once the purchase is made, the company follows up with reminders to help ensure that shoppers stay current on their payments. According to Klarna, 99% of the financing is repaid and 40% of orders placed are repaid early.
The partnership has the potential to provide BNPL capabilities to small businesses that would normally not be able to offer flexible payments or financing. By offering a more flexible payment option, these businesses have the potential to close more larger-ticket deals. It also has the potential to help businesses maintain healthy cashflow, as merchants using Klarna will receive the payment up front.
“This partnership brings Klarna’s flexible payment options to micro businesses of all kinds so business owners can get paid on time and their customers can choose how and when to pay,” said “Klarna Chief Commercial Officer David Sykes. “This includes businesses where gardeners and landscaping services using Xero can now offer a Klarna BNPL payment option, plumbers and heating engineers using Xero can fix their customers’ boilers and let them spread the cost while small businesses involved in the construction industry could spread the cost of smaller projects over three interest-free installments.”
Both Klarna and Xero have been in the fintech news cycle in recent months for different reasons. Last month, Klarna unveiled plans to cut its workforce in half in favor of AI-driven productivity. And earlier this month, Xero announced plans to acquire collaborative reporting tool Syft Analytics.
A nearly ten-year old acquisition may turn out to be Klarna’s secret weapon to improve security during the checkout process.
The Swedish payments company announced this week that it has integrated a new payment service into its Klarna PayNow product suite. The integration is designed to improve checkout security and has been made possible thanks in large part to Klarna’s acquisition of Germany-based Sofort in 2014.
“We are integrating Sofortüberweisung into the Klarna environment to offer consumers and merchants the best of both worlds: the familiar Sofort payment process combined with the smoother, more secure payment experience and global reach of Klarna,” Klarna Chief Commercial Officer David Sykes said. “The combined product is better for merchants and consumers, and (is) also a platform for Klarna to expand the functionality of Sofortüberweisung globally.”
Sofortüberweisung is a bank-to-bank payment service that Klarna gained access to by acquiring Sofort GmbH in 2014. Klarna has been incorporating Sofort’s technology into its solutions since 2017, and has launched the service in some of its other markets around the world, including the U.K. With this week’s integration, consumers will be able to track their Sofortüberweisung payments from within the Klarna app, as well as make payments without having to re-enter their payment information. This, combined with Klarna’s two-factor authentication, facilitates both greater convenience and increased security.
To that point, customers will need a Klarna account in order to take advantage of the Sofortüberweisung integration, and the company notes 95% of Sofort customers already have one. Klarna also reports that the “improved user-friendliness” of the integration has produced a 5% increase in conversion rates for consumers who use it.
Founded in 2005, Klarna made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2012. In the decade-plus since then, the company has grown into a major e-commerce and payments business with 150 million total active customers in its network – including 34 million in the U.S. With more than 500,000 total merchants using its technology, Klarna facilitates two million transactions per day.
The company also recently made headlines with word that it is preparing for an initial public offering in the U.S. as early as the first half of 2025. Also this month, Klarna announced that it had partnered with Adobe Commerce to make it easier for merchants on the platform to implement Klarna’s Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services.
“Consumers are embracing the flexibility that Buy Now Pay Later services can provide, with Adobe Analytics data showing over 11 percent growth this year,” Jason Knell, Adobe Sr. Director, Content & Commerce Partners, said. “Klarna’s global footprint enables Adobe Commerce merchants to meet the changing needs of their customers and stay competitive in today’s digital economy.”
Klarna is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Sebastian Siemiakowski is Klarna’s CEO.
As 2024 works its way toward halftime, we’re seeing an uptick in partnership and collaboration activity from crypto to regtech. Check back all week long for updates on the latest in fintech news.
DataVisorenhances multi-tenancy capabilities for scalable, secure, and flexible fraud and AML solutions.
E-Commerce
Klarnadivests its Klarna Checkout (KCO) division for $520 million.
Regtech
E-document management platform A-Cube APIannounces collaboration with Salt Edge to facilitate compliant document digitization.
DeFi
Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform 1inchpartners with Web3 security provider Blockaid.
Embedded finance
Cotribute, an embedded fintech platform serving credit unions, partners with APCU and Center Parc Credit Union to launch an automated digital account opening solution.
Embedded finance platform for technology purchases Gyngerraises $20 million in a Series A round led by PayPal Ventures.
Banking-as-a-Service
Payments and financial solutions provider Finzlypartners with Frost Bank to bring FedNow and RTP Instant Payments to business and retail customers.
This week, Finovate Global looks at recent fintech developments in France.
French start-up Lydiaannounced the launch of a new digital banking brand this week. Named Sumeria, Lydia plans to invest more than €100 million in the new initiative, as well as hire 400 people over the next three years. Sumeria, according to a post on LinkedIn, offers 4% interest and is designed to be a “simple and accessible banking super app.
“We are convinced that technology (cloud, mobile) is not an end in itself, but a way to simplify life, through everyday details,” the company noted in a statement on its website. Arguing that current accounts should be neither “trendy gadgets” nor make users captive to a given app, system, or institution, the company explained: “It should solve a real problem. This is why Lydia’s choices, with Sumeria, are motivated by common sense and its ambition to be universal: for everyone, for everything.”
Lydia’s brand announcement follows a decision by the company to split its digital banking app into two components. Originally launched in 2013 as a P2P payments app, Lydia’s solution scaled, adding more and more financial services features over the years. It was the launch of its Lydia Accounts offering convinced the company that a change was necessary to keep its early adopters – who relied heavily on the P2P service – onboard. The result was to offer the P2P services separately from Lydia’s digital banking proposition through the Lydia Accounts app. The original Lydia app will become Sumeria, with the new features mentioned above – such as stock trading, savings accounts and loans – to be ported to the new banking brand.
Headquartered in Paris, Lydia has raised more than $259 million in funding. The company’s investors include Accel and Echo Street Capital. In addition to the launch of Sumeria, Lydia is also seeking a credit institution license from the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority.
Paris, France-based private wealth management startup RockFiraised €3 million in funding this week. The round was led by Varsity I and featured the participation of numerous business angels in technology and private management. The company plans to use the capital to grow its workforce by 3x by the end of 2024 so as to provide private banking and wealth management expertise to clients throughout France.
“Since the beginning of the year, we have seen strong client traction eager for a new model to manage their wealth,” RockFi Co-Founder and CEO Pierre Marin said. “With a market of €4.8 trillionin assets ahead of us and no tech leader yet in France and Europe, our ambition is very high for the coming years.”
RockFi’s model combines human expertise and technology to offer services including banking, wealth management, life insurance, and pension savings. The firm has a targetable clientele with assets of more than €100,000, representing six million households in France.
“Three months after our official launch this is an important step that anchors a strong momentum and allows us to further accelerate the construction of the new private management,” the company wrote on its LinkedIn page this week. “The ambition remains: to surround ourselves with the best talent and partners in each field and to deploy a tech ecosystem to unleash the potential of independent wealth managers at the service of their clients.”
Meet Finovate’s French Alums!
Over the years, Finovate has been proud to showcase a number of fintech innovators based in France. Here’s a look at some of French fintechs that have demoed their technology on the Finovate stage in recent years.
Klarna announced that 87% of its staff use its Generative AI engine, Kiki in their daily work activities.
Kiki was launched in June 2023 and uses OpenAI’s Large Language Models.
Kiki generates responses within one to five seconds and offers answers that are dependent on the user’s role and other context.
Global payments network and shopping platform Klarnaannounced today that 87% of its staff use Generative AI to complete their daily work activities. The employees are using Kiki, Klarna’s internal AI assistant.
Klarna launched Kiki in June of 2023, leveraging OpenAI’s Large Language Models (LLMs). Since it was released, Kiki has responded to more than 250,000 inquiries, which equates to roughly 2,000 inquiries per day. Today, more than 85% of all Klarna employees use Kiki.
“We push everyone to test, test, test and explore,” said Klarna CEO and Co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “As Klarna continues to discover applications for OpenAI’s tech, there’s the potential to take the business to new heights. We’re aimed at achieving a new level of employee empowerment, enhancing both our team’s performance and the customer experience.”
Overall, Kiki helps manage and distribute internal knowledge at Klarna, which helps to maintain a transparent culture. The AI assistant, which generates responses within one to five seconds, offers answers that are dependent on the user’s role and other context.
How do Klarna staff use Kiki? Employees can use the AI assistant to not only fetch information, but also to solve issues independently. For example, the company’s communications team uses the engine to evaluate whether press articles written about Klarna are positive or negative. The company’s lawyers use the tool to draft common types of contracts. “The big law firms have had a really great business just from providing templates for common types of contract. But ChatGPT is even better than a template because you can create something quite bespoke,” said Klarna Senior Managing Legal Counsel Selma Bogren.
Klarna also uses GenAI for external customer communications. The company states that, after one month, the AI customer service assistant handled 2.3 million conversations, equivalent to two-thirds of Klarna’s customer service chats.
The announcement comes as OpenAI, which powers Kiki, unveiledGPT-4o, the latest iteration of its GenAI chatbot. The new version is faster, has improved its non-English language text, and accepts input of any combination of text, audio, and images, while generating any combination of text, audio, and image outputs. “Because GPT-4o is our first model combining all of these modalities, we are still just scratching the surface of exploring what the model can do and its limitations,” states OpenAI’s announcement page.
Happy Earth Day! Partnerships in payments and fundraising in the international investment/wealth management space are dominating fintech news headlines as the week begins.
Subscription management and billing platform Recurlyintroduces new dashboards with built-in benchmarks.
Klarnasells Hero, the virtual shopping platform it acquired in 2021, for $1.3 million (€1.3 million).
SplititunveilsFI-PayLater to empower banks to provide in-checkout installments for existing customers.
Identity verification
Financial crime risk data and fraud detection technology company ComplyAdvantageacquires knowledge graph builder Golden.
AU10TIXannounces $18 billion in business fraud prevented since 2021.
Small Business Tools
BaswareintroducesAP Protect, an AI-powered solution that empowers finance teams to protect their organizations against profit loss, invoice errors, and fraud.
Marqetapartners with OakNorth to offer commercial cards in the U.K.
Payroll
Ripplingraises $200 million in new financing with $13.5 billion valuation.
Klarna launched Klarna Plus, a subscription tool that offers users premium benefits and access to exclusive offers.
For $7.99, users receive extra rewards points, a waived service fee for purchases made at retailers that are not in the fintech’s network, and exclusive discounts at retailers.
Klarna counts 150 million active users who make two million transactions every day using its platform.
The subscription economy has been gaining steam since Netflix was founded in 1997. With news this week that buy now, pay later (BNPL) player Klarna is jumping on board, it is apparent the subscription trend is not dying out any time soon.
Yesterday, the fintech unveiledKlarna Plus, the company’s subscription service for its U.S. users. For $7.99 per month, users receive premium benefits that offer Klarna shoppers access to a variety of offers and deals.
“Today marks an exciting milestone for Klarna with the introduction of our first-ever premium subscription service, Klarna Plus,” said Klarna Chief Marketing Officer David Sandstrom. “Our research indicates that dedicated Klarna users are looking for an enhanced shopping experience through a subscription model. Klarna Plus addresses this demand, allowing us to deepen our engagement with 37 million loyal U.S. consumers, while also further diversifying a portfolio of payment and shopping solutions.”
What do users receive for $7.99?
Rewards points Users accrue two rewards points for every $1 spent on purchases with Klarna Rewards Club. This is double the 1 point for every $1 spent that rewards club members traditionally receive.
Waived service fees The service fees that users incur at retailers outside of Klarna’s network are waived when they pay using their Klarna One Time Card.
Exclusive deals Users gain access to special discounts at retailers including Nike COACH, Macy’s, Instacart, and GOAT.
Sign-up offer Users receive $8 off their first Klarna Plus purchase.
Like all subscriptions, this one is only worth the price tag if the user actually uses the service. Here’s a breakdown of each incentive:
Rewards points The rewards points are valued at $0.02, and they can only be exchanged for gift cards at a limited number of brands, including Starbucks, Sephora, Foot Locker, and Uber. Receiving an extra point per dollar under Klarna Plus would require spending around $400 each month to make up for the $7.99 monthly fee.
Waived service fee As far as having the service fee waived, Klarna users face a $1 to $2 transaction fee when they make purchases outside of Klarna’s retailer network. This means users would need to transact at these outside retailers anywhere from four to seven times each month to make the monthly fee worth the cost.
Exclusive deals It is difficult to place a dollar number on the value of exclusive deals, since people have varying relationships with high-profile brands such as Nike and COACH. That said, this benefit may be the most effective in attracting users. Loyalty program members will receive monthly deals valued at $6 at five selected stores for a maximum benefit of $30 per month.
Sign-up offer For users who are not brand-forward, the more thrifty shoppers may be drawn in by Klarna’s $8 coupon. It is essentially allowing them to trial their first month for free.
Klarna has built up its shopping marketplace to compete with that of Amazon. The company works with more than half a million retail partners who list goods across a range of categories, including health, clothing, toys, beauty, photography, and more. Klarna counts 150 million shoppers– 40 million of which are U.S. based– who make two million transactions using its platform each day.
Klarna was founded in 2005 and has been transforming itself from strictly a BNPL company into a shopping ecosystem with goods from more than 500,000 retailers across the globe. Last year, the Sweden-based company extended its partnership with Adyen, announcing that it will leverage Adyen’s acquiring capabilities to power card payments for its end users.
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.
