Klarna Breaks the $1B Barrier as Banking Push Accelerates
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Klarna just delivered its first $1 billion-dollar revenue quarter.
Q4 revenue hit $1.082 billion, up 38% year-over-year. GMV reached $38.7 billion, also above guidance.
The shift is visible in the numbers...
Banking consumers doubled to 15.8 million, up 101% YoY. These users generate $107 in revenue per consumer, compared to $30 for the average user.
Klarna Card users reached 4.2 million. Fair Financing GMV surged 165% year-over-year, as Klarna positions itself as an alternative to revolving credit.
“We’ve been executing on a clear plan: acquire customers through seamless payments, then deepen those relationships into banking,” said Sebastian Siemiatkowski. In this video, the CEO of Klarna talks more about the achievement:
CEO of Klarna talks more about the achievement
Since Q4 2022, revenue is up 104%, while operating expenses declined 8%. Revenue per employee climbed to $1.24 million, up 3.6x, as headcount dropped 49%.
Which version of Klarna do you think the market will value most? I would really like to know your thoughts.
Scroll down 👇 I’ll be back next week with more signals shaping FinTech.
Cheers,
INSIGHTS
📰 Breaking Down Borders: The Rise of Interconnected Global Payments Networks by Noah. In this article, the firm argues that while domestic systems have made national payments instant and low-cost, cross-border transfers remain slow and expensive. It suggests the next phase of payments will connect these siloed networks using stablecoins and blockchain as a neutral settlement layer. Read the full article here
FINTECH NEWS
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PAYMENTS NEWS
🇦🇪 Ecommpay Marija Solovjova, Head of Fraud AML Transactions & Disputes department, honoured with Women in Risk & Compliance Award. The recognition highlights her leadership in fraud prevention, transaction monitoring, and regulatory compliance, as well as her role in strengthening merchant protection and advancing integrity across the FinTech ecosystem.
🇮🇳 PhonePe rolls out biometric UPI payments; users can now pay with fingerprint or face ID. PhonePe now allows fingerprint and facial recognition for UPI payments. This feature is for transactions up to Rs 5,000, offering a faster payment experience. The feature is currently available for Android users, with an iOS rollout planned.
🇺🇸 Contra is introducing Contra Payments, aimed at improving how creatives get paid across both one-to-one client work and scalable income streams such as digital products and agentic commerce. Contra says it remains committed to a zero-commission model while increasing transparency around the platform.
FINTECH RUNNING CLUB
🌍 The FinTech Running Club is more than just ONE run! It's a FinTech community and networking all in one place. 🏃➡️ RSVP to join here!
REGTECH NEWS
🇬🇧 Bank of Ireland’s UK arm hit with £3.8m fine for fraud failures. The lender was hit by the Payments Systems Regulator (PSR) for missing the deadline by 14 months for a “vital” service that would send requests for confirmation of payee checks.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇲🇽 Mexico’s Plata wins banking license, heating up FinTech race. The company, whose sole product is credit cards, said it took three years to get the approval and pledged to expand its product offering with the license. The move comes amid growing competition in Mexico’s FinTech sector.
🇫🇷 Revolut is closing its operations in New Caledonia. The decision stems from regulatory constraints, as New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and Wallis and Futuna are not part of the European Union. Although Revolut operates under a Lithuanian banking licence within the EU, it is not authorised to provide services in these territories under current banking regulations.
🇺🇸 Klarna accelerates U.S. growth and delivers $1bn revenue driven by rapid banking service adoption. The U.S. led Klarna's growth with revenue up 58% year-over-year, accelerating from 51% in Q3. Klarna now serves 29 million U.S. consumers, with 11% of the population having used Klarna in the last 12 months.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇺🇸 Milo hits $100M originations in crypto-collateral home loans, closes $12M deal. The offering enables homeowners to tap holdings denominated in cryptocurrency to secure purchase or refinance financing, while preserving ownership of those tokens.
🇺🇸 Sam Altman's OpenAI unveils EVMbench to test whether AI can keep crypto’s smart contracts safe. The new testing framework is designed to measure how well artificial intelligence can understand and potentially secure smart contracts on blockchains.
🇺🇸 Privy enables custodial wallets backed by Bridge to support enterprise-grade crypto operations. The new offering provides access to licensed custodians, institutional-grade controls, and separation between product logic and asset custody.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇺🇸 Ericsson and Mastercard enhance global digital money movement and accelerate digital financial inclusion. The collaboration simplifies access to advanced money movement solutions for telecom service providers, FinTechs, and banks, and increases financial digital inclusion for unbanked and underbanked communities.
🇬🇧 Wirex launches stablecoin push-to-card powered by Visa Direct. The feature enables partners to deliver stablecoin-funded payouts directly to eligible cards worldwide, with coverage extending to more than 3 billion cards across 200+ countries and territories.
🇮🇳 OpenAI deepens India push with Pine Labs FinTech partnership. The partnership will see Pine Labs embed OpenAI’s application programming interfaces within its payments and commerce infrastructure, the companies said, all to enable AI-assisted settlement, reconciliation, and invoicing workflows.
🇬🇧 eBay partners with TrueLayer to offer Pay by Bank at checkout. With Pay by Bank, eBay’s UK buyers can pay directly from their bank accounts by authorising the transaction through their bank app in seconds. The experience is fast, secure, and frictionless; no cards or manual entry of account details required.
🇫🇷 Akeneo partners with Stripe to help businesses get ready to sell on AI Agents, introducing Digital Showroom for real-time, sales-ready experiences. Through a partnership with Stripe, it also enables AI discovery and agentic checkout, extending product data into the next generation of commerce.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇮🇳 ToneTag secures $5 mn from Qualcomm Ventures to scale sound-based payments. The company said this will allow it to deploy edge AI-powered, payment-capable modules designed and engineered in India across global markets.
🇦🇪 Copla raises €6M Series A to support EU regulatory compliance. The new funding will support product development, team growth, and expansion beyond the EU, while advancing Copla Bridge, a platform designed to help organisations manage compliance across multiple entities from a single view.
🇺🇸 Monark raises $8.1m in strategic funding round to build standard rails for private markets. Monark will use the new capital to scale its distribution network through integrations with additional brokerage and wealth management platforms, as well as to expand access to new products and asset classes.
🇦🇺 InvestStream secures oversubscribed seed round at US$22 million post-money valuation. The capital will accelerate InvestStream’s strategy to build the Artificial Intelligence (AI)- centric financial cashflow modelling infrastructure that applies advanced technology to fundamentally improve how financial institutions operate across superannuation, advice, and data-driven decision-making.
🇲🇽 Bravo signs a €200 million financing line with Fortress Investment Group. The funding line will support the firm's growth and accelerate the development of its credit division. Read more
🇺🇸 Avantos raises $25m series A to expand AI financial platform. With new funding and investors, Avantos’s new articulated objectives are to enhance the development of its product and to increase the number of partnerships with investors in the field of financial technology.
🇺🇸 Jump secures fresh $80M funding in Series B. The company says it will go toward building out an AI “operating system” aimed at boosting advisor productivity and organic growth. Continue reading
🇬🇧 Stacks raises $23 million to reinvent finance operations with Agentic AI. The company developed a data layer that connects directly to finance systems and creates a single, consistent financial view across them. It has also built deterministic machine-learning tooling required to make automation reliable at enterprise scale.
🇺🇸 Badge raises $17 million to chase the next era of digital wallets. Badge aims to help businesses activate this new channel while avoiding spam and preserving user trust as wallets increasingly replace physical counterparts. Keep reading
M&A
🇧🇷 Brazilian FinTech Laqus acquires Estar.finance and focuses on the secondary market and digital assets. According to a statement from FinTech CEO Rodrigo Amato, the addition of Estar will allow them to offer the market a more integrated proposal, capable of supporting the accelerated growth of instruments such as private debt, digital structures, and tokenised assets.
🇦🇷 Visa to acquire Prisma Medios de Pago and Newpay in Argentina. The combined technology platforms of Prisma and Newpay will accelerate the deployment of advanced technologies such as tokenisation, biometric authentication, intelligent risk tools and agentic commerce solutions.
🇲🇽 Kubo and Crédito Maestro advance merger for US$35.6M to strengthen their presence in the digital savings and credit market in Mexico. The agreement stipulates that Kubo will contribute its license from the National Banking and Securities Commission and its technological platform, while Crédito Maestro will add capital and commercial capacity.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇺🇸 Remitly CEO Matt Oppenheimer steps down, hands reins of FinTech company to former Amazon exec. Veteran tech and finance executive Sebastian Gunningham will replace Oppenheimer, effective Feb. 19. Oppenheimer will become chairman as the company leans into what it calls its next chapter.
🇬🇧 Freetrade's Viktor Nebehaj to step down as CEO. The outgoing CEO states that he is leaving Freetrade in its strongest position ever. "We've kicked off 2026 with meaningful product and pricing changes, including removing fees on our SIPP and funds".
🇪🇺 ClearBank accelerates European expansion with appointment of former Uber executive, Tristan Kirchner, as EU CEO. Kirchner brings more than 25 years of payments and financial services experience, having held senior leadership roles at Uber Payments, Barclays, and Visa.
🇬🇧 Former Starling Bank co-founder and CEO John Mountain joins savings platform Stoa. John Mountain will work closely with Stoa’s leadership team to help shape product strategy and accelerate distribution via banks, building societies, and merchant partners.
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