Sweden's Klarna surpasses $1 billion in fourth-quarter revenue as US growth speeds up

Advertisement Business Sweden's Klarna surpasses $1 billion in fourth-quarter revenue as US growth speeds up FILE PHOTO: Klarna app on a smartphone is seen in this illustration taken September 9, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo 19 Feb 2026 08:32PM Bookmark Bookmark Share WhatsApp Telegram Facebook Twitter Email LinkedIn Set CNA as your preferred source on Google Add CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results. Read a summary of this article on FAST. Get bite-sized news via a newcards interface. Give it a try. Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST FAST STOCKHOLM, Feb 19 : Swedish "buy now, pay later" services provider and online bank Klarna reported a 38 per cent year-on-year jump in fourth-quarter sales on Thursday, just beating expectations, as it added more banking customers and grew in the United States. Quarterly revenue at the fintech group, which went public in New York in September, crossed the billion-dollar mark for the first time, reaching $1.08 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG had on average forecast sales of $1.07 billion.Klarna said users of its banking services doubled to 15.8 million."It's showing that we can really do what we set out to do, which was (to) first create a global payments network, and then create a true banking relationship," CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told Reuters. Subscribe to our Chief Editor’s Week in Review Our chief editor shares analysis and picks of the week's biggest news every Saturday. This service is not intended for persons residing in the E.U. By clicking subscribe, I agree to receive news updates and promotional material from Mediacorp and Mediacorp’s partners. Loading Klarna has said early adoption of AI across operations has helped it shrink its workforce despite rapid expansion, and it has used part of the savings to raise wages. Siemiatkowski said on Thursday the average employee compensation had risen 60 per cent since 2022. "More and more of the jobs at Klarna that will exist even in an AI-powered world will be about human relationships, whether it's a relationship with our merchants or relationship with our consumers," Siemiatkowski said, adding that a growing share of Klarna's staff will be supporting customers.Klarna's gross merchandise volume (GMV), a commonly used e-commerce metric for measuring sales, rose 32 per cent to $38.7 billion in the quarter. In the U.S., its largest market, GMV grew 43 per cent while revenue rose 58 per cent. Klarna is due to publish its full fourth-quarter earnings report on February 26. In the third quarter, it made a net loss of $95 million. Source: Reuters Newsletter Week in Review Subscribe to our Chief Editor’s Week in Review Our chief editor shares analysis and picks of the week's biggest news every Saturday. Sign up for our newsletters Get our pick of top stories and thought-provoking articles in your inbox Subscribe here Get the CNA app Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories Download here Get WhatsApp alerts Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app Join here Advertisement Also worth reading Content is loading... Advertisement Expand to read the full story Get bite-sized news via a newcards interface. Give it a try. Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST FAST