Klarna’s Q2 numbers show growth is turning into profitability
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Klarna just reported a pretty strong Q2. GMV hit $36.6B (+18% YoY), revenue reached $1.04B (+27%), and adjusted operating income jumped 214% to $91M.
What caught my eye is that transaction margin dollars grew even faster, up 42% to $446M. Klarna now has more than 120M active consumers and 1.2M+ merchants, so the story is becoming less about simply adding users and more about getting more value from the network.
At the same time, Klarna is becoming more of an everyday financial platform, with 6.5M active Klarna Card users and 2M paying Membership subscribers.
And to round things off, I’ve also included a useful Taxbit piece on CRS 2.0 and what the expansion of digital-asset reporting means for fintech compliance — especially when it comes to onboarding, KYC and account classification.
Let’s get into today’s FinTech stories. 👇 See you tomorrow!
Cheers,
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FINTECH NEWS
🇸🇪 Klarna reports Q2 2026 results with $1.042 billion in revenue, up 27% YoY. GMV reached $36.6 billion, active consumers grew to 120 million, and operating income turned positive at $27 million versus a $46 million loss a year ago.
🇺🇸 Payward joins Anthropic's Project Glasswing, using Claude Mythos 5 to scan all environments for software vulnerabilities. Findings feed into its existing red and blue team triage pipeline, with open-source flaws reported upstream under responsible disclosure practices.
🇸🇩 Sudan FinTech firm Al Asjad sues central bank over licence cancellation. The company has filed legal proceedings challenging the regulator's decision to revoke its operating licence.
🇬🇧 Snoop launches Future You, a personalised savings tool that projects what existing habits could be worth over time. Users can test different saving amounts and update their Auto Saver rules within the same journey.
INSIGHTS
💡 Taxbit: CRS 2.0 — Preparing for Expanded Digital Asset Reporting. CRS 2.0 expands the existing reporting framework to cover certain electronic money products, CBDCs, regulated stablecoins, and indirect crypto exposure, creating new data and operational requirements for financial institutions. Companies now need to determine whether they fall under CRS 2.0, CARF, or both, while updating onboarding, KYC, account classification, monitoring, and reporting workflows to capture the required data and remain audit-ready. Taxbit enables and automates dual-regime compliance in one platform. Read the full article here
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇺🇸 Rain launches the Agentic Payments Alliance, a coalition including Visa, Mastercard, Fiserv, Circle, Solana, and Remitly. The group aims to define standards for agent authorization, fraud detection, and loyalty as McKinsey projects up to $5 trillion in agentic commerce by 2030.
🇺🇸 Kraken's FinTech app launches a cashback U.S. debit card, competing directly with CashApp, Venmo, and Robinhood. The Krak Card offers up to 2% cash or bitcoin back and lets users spend from over 600 currencies and crypto assets at the point of purchase.
🇨🇳 Alipay launches full-stack agentic commerce platform in China. The platform enables autonomous AI agents to browse, select, and transact on behalf of users within the Alipay ecosystem.
🇵🇭 Paymentology powers GoTyme Bank's Apple Pay integration in the Philippines. GoTyme became the first Philippine digital bank to support Apple Pay for its 10 million customers on August 4, enabling contactless payments via tokenised debit cards.
🇮🇳 Razorpay launches Vulcan, a payments AI foundation model built with NVIDIA and AWS. Trained on nearly 3 trillion data points across 4 billion payments, early components delivered an 8-10% improvement in payment success rates.
🇺🇸 Stripe expands multicurrency settlement and adds instant FX conversion, helping global businesses avoid double conversion fees. Cross-border volume on the platform has grown over 40% annually since 2018.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇬🇧 Yugo and Yapily tackle the trust gap in agentic commerce using open banking. The prototype with Urbo lets AI shopping agents search, compare, and transact securely on behalf of consumers.
🇦🇺 Revolut sets sights on Australia's cut-throat mortgage market, aiming to win customers from the Big Four retail banks. CEO Matt Baxby confirmed the company is considering a move into home lending as it expands its Australian product suite.
🇰🇼 Weyay Bank enhances its SELECT card experience for allowance students in Kuwait. The update introduces revamped rewards, cashback tracking, and in-app redemption for university customers who receive their allowance via Weyay.
🇦🇪 UAE digital bank Ruya deploys agentic AI, launching three live use cases supporting business onboarding and transaction processing. The bank partnered with Magure and operates its AI infrastructure within a private cloud environment retaining full data control.
🇺🇸 Uptiq expands U.S. banking leadership as institutions move AI from pilot to production. Keep reading
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇬🇧 Binance could return to the UK with a new license, five years after the FCA restricted its British unit. The exchange plans to apply when the FCA opens its crypto application window on September 30.
🇪🇺 Kraken adds US listed stock trading for EEA customers under its MiFID II authorization. Eligible users can now trade over 7,000 US equities alongside 600+ crypto assets and 700+ tokenised xStocks in a single platform.
STABLECOINS
🇺🇸 Circle expands cirBTC access to all Circle Mint users on Ethereum. The Bitcoin-backed token is held by Circle National Trust, and all Mint users can now mint and redeem cirBTC directly.
🇺🇸 Visa is looking for a new stablecoin settlement partner after Mastercard's acquisition of BVNK. The company has issued an RFP seeking a provider that can support a range of stablecoins for settlement.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇺🇸 Personetics partners with Plaid to combine open finance connectivity with AI personalization for banks. The integration gives institutions a comprehensive view of customer financial activity to drive engagement and deposit growth.
🇲🇽 Unlimit supports the digitalisation of Mexico's education sector through a partnership with Mattilda. The integration provides digital payment processing for debit, credit, instalments, and SPEI methods while enabling expansion into additional Latin American markets.
🇺🇸 Cash App expands crypto support beyond bitcoin and USDC via MoonPay, giving its 50 million users access to assets including ether, solana, and USDT. Eligible users can purchase digital assets directly using their Cash App balances.
🇧🇷 Matera and Utila partner to help banks bring digital assets to their customers. The collaboration enables financial institutions to offer digital asset services through Matera's existing banking infrastructure.
🇬🇧 Wrexham AFC names Royal Bank of Canada as Official Bank Partner and Back-of-Kit Sponsor for the 2026/27 season. RBC's shield debuted on kits at the opening match against Cardiff City, deepening the bank's investment in European communities.
🇰🇷 Ripple partners with South Korea's Jeonbuk Bank for cross-border payments. The regional bank will use Ripple's technology to enable faster international transfers for its customers.
🌍 Tuum and CoorB partner to accelerate digital and Islamic banking across MENA. The collaboration offers cloud-native, Sharia-compliant core banking solutions for institutions in the region.
🌍 Veefin Solutions partners with NSIA Group to deploy supply chain finance across five West African countries. The platform will support automated Factoring and Reverse Factoring in Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Benin, Togo, and Guinea.
🇮🇳 Cred rolls out Circle, a platform connecting users with vetted domain experts across careers, money, wellness, and relationships. Sessions are available via text, audio, or video at a flat fee of ₹25 per minute.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇬🇧 Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky's VC firm QuantumLight closes its second fund at $500M. The firm, co-founded by the Revolut CEO, has not disclosed further details about investment strategy or timeline.
🇸🇪 Quartr raises $18M to accelerate AI financial data growth, led by existing investor Altos Ventures with new backer SEB. The company reports triple-digit growth rates and serves over 800 financial institutions and technology businesses.
🇨🇦 Clearco secures $100 million USD in asset-backed debt financing from Macquarie Group as it aims to break even by Q4. The Toronto FinTech company provides capital to roughly 400 e-commerce customers and says it is rescaling after a difficult period of downsizing.
🇺🇸 Clearhaven Partners makes a strategic investment in PayQuicker, the global payout orchestration platform. PayQuicker enables enterprises to send compliant, real-time payouts across more than 210 countries and territories via a single API.
M&A
🇪🇺 Santander and Centerbridge receive EU Commission approval on the Ebury deal. The European Commission cleared the transaction, allowing the acquisition of the international payments and FX specialist to proceed following regulatory review.
🇳🇬 Standard Bank seeks a stake in OPay as the SoftBank-backed Nigerian FinTech prepares for a U.S. IPO. Read more
🇵🇹 ECB revokes Banco Empresas Montepio's licence, ending the planned sale to FinTech Rauva. The deal, agreed in September 2023 for around €30M to €35M, never completed its regulatory filing.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇸🇪 Klarna plans CFO and CMO transitions for early 2027, beginning a leadership succession after its NYSE listing. CFO Niclas Neglén and CMO David Sandström will remain during the transition, with the next CFO to be based in New York.
🌎 EBANX deepens global footprint with strategic regional leadership expansion, appointing new VPs and Directors across EMEA, APAC, Africa, and LatAm. The move follows 48% TPV growth and aims to place executive leadership closer to merchants.
🇺🇸 Fireblocks appoints former SEC Acting Chairman Elad Roisman as Chief Regulatory and Policy Officer. Roisman joins from Cravath, Swaine & Moore to lead regulatory strategy as digital asset legislation takes shape.
🇪🇸 Revolut hires from Remitly for its new Spain General Manager, appointing Santiago Pérez Olano to lead the market. The neobank has already surpassed 6.3 million customers in Spain.
🇺🇸 Bakkt appoints Matt White as Chief Financial Officer for its next phase of global growth. White brings over two decades of public company finance experience, most recently as CFO of CoreCard Corporation.
🇮🇳 MobiKwik infuses ₹61 Cr in its lending arm and appoints ex-Bajaj Markets executive Manish Pathania as CBO. The move follows the transfer of digital lending operations to subsidiary MDSPL after receiving RBI approval for NBFC operations.
🇿🇦 Contis founder Peter Cox joins Prepay Services as Chairman and shareholder to drive its commercial launch in South Africa. Continue reading
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