Klarna readies $1 billion NYSE debut 🥳🔔; AI is reshaping commercial insurance 🤖🛡️; Ramp hits $13B valuation as revenue soars to $700M 😳🚀
You're missing out big time... Weekly Recap 🔁
👋 Hey, Linas here! Welcome back to a 🔓 weekly free edition 🔓 of my daily newsletter. Each day I focus on 3 stories that are making a difference in the financial technology space. Coupled with things worth watching & most important money movements, it’s the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Tech.
If you’re not a subscriber, here’s what you missed this week:
10 FinTech and Finance stocks to include in your portfolio for 2025 💼 | Part II [seize the Future: ride the wave of innovation reshaping Finance & FinTech]
The Ultimate List of Resources about AI Agents 🤖 [unlock the power of AI Agents: your gateway to the future of autonomous agentic systems]
AI 100: Top Artificial Intelligence Startups of 2024 🤖💸 [these companies raised $28B already. Find whose backing them, unlock their exclusive pitch decks & learn from the best]
Regulatory U-Turn: Trump administration clears path for crypto and tech in finance 👀💸 [what’s been happening & what can we expect next + bonus deep dives into Robinhood & Coinbase]
FinTech disruptor Dave generates triple-digit EBITDA growth as new fee model turbocharges profitability 😤📈 [deep dive into their latest Q4 2024 financials, what they tell us & whether Dave is worth your time and money in 2025 & beyond]
Payoneer’s Q4 2024: cross-border payments giant that’s poised for sustained growth 📈💸 [breaking down their latest Q4 2024 numbers, what they mean & what’s next for Payoneer + some bonus reads inside]
PayPal’s Great Leap Forward to reinvent commerce 👀🛍️ [deep dive into PayPal’s Investor Day 2025, uncovering key numbers & insights, and whether PYPL 0.00%↑ is worth your time and money in 2025 + lots of bonus deep dives inside]
American Express acquires Center in a bid to integrate cards with expense management 🤝💳 [what it’s all about & why it matters + bonus deep dive into AmEx and their latest financials]
Quick look at the maturing BNPL landscape where mobile wallets drive growth 📲💳 [a holistic look at the current state of affairs, what it tells us & what can we expect next + bonus deep dives inside on the leading players in BNPL space]
Global 6,200+ Investor Database to Fast-Track Your Funding in 2025 💸 [shorten your fundraising time, find your perfect investors, and close rounds faster]
As for today, here are the 3 incredible FinTech stories that were transforming the world of financial technology as we know it. This was yet another insane week in the financial technology space so make sure to check all the above stories.
Klarna readies $1 billion NYSE debut 🥳🔔
The news 🗞️ Swedish payments giant Klarna is preparing to launch its long-anticipated initial public offering, with plans to file publicly as early as next week according to Bloomberg sources.
The Stockholm-based BNPL FinTech aims to raise a minimum of $1 billion and is targeting a valuation exceeding $15 billion on the New York Stock Exchange.
Let’s take a quick look at this.
More on this 👉 The IPO is expected to price in early April, though the company has not officially confirmed these details. Klarna has already taken preliminary steps by confidentially filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as announced in November. The company has assembled a substantial team of approximately 15 banks to manage the listing, with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley serving as lead underwriters.
Zoom out 🔎 We must remember that Klarna's path to public markets has been marked by significant valuation swings. During the fintech boom in 2021, the company reached a peak valuation of $45.6 billion, only to see that figure collapse to $6.7 billion the following year.
More recently, shareholder Chrysalis Investments' assessment of its stake suggested a valuation of around $14.6 billion.
Under CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski's leadership, Klarna has begun exploring new revenue streams beyond its core buy-now-pay-later services. Last month, Siemiatkowski indicated the company would enter the cryptocurrency market, stating on social platform X that Klarna "will embrace crypto."
✈️ THE TAKEAWAY
What’s next? 🤔 Klarna's listing represents a potential turning point for fintech IPOs, which have experienced a relative drought since the sector's peak in 2021. A successful debut could encourage other payment and financial technology companies considering public offerings, including Chime, Zilch, or Plaid, to accelerate their plans. The timing suggests growing confidence in market conditions for high-growth technology companies. However, Klarna faces significant challenges as it transitions to public markets. Investors will surely scrutinize its path to sustainable profitability amid intensifying competition in the BNPL space and increased regulatory attention globally.
ICYMI:
AI is reshaping commercial insurance 🤖🛡️
Following the trends 📈 The commercial insurance industry, a multi-billion-dollar sector, has long struggled with antiquated processes and manual workflows.
However, a significant transformation is underway as AI technologies specifically designed for insurance operations begin to address these longstanding inefficiencies.
Let’s take a quick look at this.
More on this 👉 Vishal Sankhla, co-founder and CEO of Outmarket AI, aptly describes what the industry needs as "a painkiller, not just a vitamin" – solutions that tackle acute pain points immediately rather than incremental improvements. His company recently secured $4.7 million in funding to enhance connectivity between insurance brokers, wholesalers, and carriers.
Unlike companies implementing generic AI models, Outmarket is building insurance-specific AI from the ground up after spending a year collaborating with industry stakeholders. This specialized approach allows their technology to integrate with legacy systems and understand complex insurance workflows.
Zoom out 🔎 One of AI's most significant contributions is creating standardization across previously siloed systems. In a recent PYMTS article Sankhla explained, "If you ask a data analyst to pull a metric like last month's premium, you'll get different answers because they're looking at different systems." Outmarket's unified data layer ensures consistency in definitions and metrics across organizations.
The company focuses primarily on insurance brokers – critical yet technologically underserved intermediaries who manage multiple coverages for businesses. These professionals currently face overwhelming inefficiencies, from manually processing 200-page policy documents to managing floods of emails while working with data trapped in disparate systems.
AI solutions optimize key performance indicators like the submission-to-bind ratio and can pre-fill renewal applications with the previous year's data. Rather than forcing brokers to change established workflows, these technologies connect existing systems to enhance efficiency without disruption.
✈️ THE TAKEAWAY
What’s next? 🤔 As AI adoption accelerates across the insurance industry, competitive advantage will shift from simply having AI capabilities to how effectively companies integrate these technologies into their core operations. This represents a fundamental change in how insurance businesses will differentiate themselves in the coming years. The ripple effects will likely extend beyond brokers to benefit the entire ecosystem. Underwriters will receive more accurate, complete applications, enabling faster processing and better coverage options for businesses. We can also expect to see specialized AI models emerge for other insurance segments, such as claims processing and risk assessment. Looking ahead, the most successful implementations will likely be those that preserve the human advisory role while eliminating tedious manual tasks. Because insurance is fundamentally about trust and expertise – AI that enhances rather than replaces these elements will drive the most value.
ICYMI:
FinTech startup Ramp hits $13B valuation as revenue soars to $700M 😳🚀
The news 🗞️ Expense management FinTech Ramp has nearly doubled its valuation to $13 billion in a $150 million secondary share sale, marking a significant milestone for the five-year-old company.
This valuation leap represents a substantial increase from the $7.65 billion valuation it achieved in April 2023, demonstrating renewed investor confidence in high-growth FinTech startups.
Let’s take a look at this.
More on this 👉 According to recent reports, Ramp has experienced extraordinary revenue growth, reaching $700 million in annualized revenue as of January 2025, up from $300 million in August 2023. The company, which passed the $100 million revenue mark before its third birthday in 2022, now accounts for between 1-2% of the U.S. card market - impressive for a relatively young player in the space.
The secondary share sale, which allows employees and early investors to cash out some of their equity, attracted participation from notable investors including Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, and General Catalyst. This transaction follows a similar pattern seen with other high-profile startups like Stripe, which recently achieved a $91.5 billion valuation through its own secondary offering.
ICYMI: Stripe surges to $91.5B valuation as AI fuels record payment growth 😳💳 [a quick look at their annual 2024 letter with key insights & things worth paying attention to, how Stripe stacks against Adyen + more bonus dives inside]
Zoom out 🔎 Ramp's business model generates revenue through multiple channels, including interchange fees from card transactions, bill payment fees, SaaS subscriptions from its Plus offering, and foreign exchange fees. The company recently expanded its product suite with a Treasury offering, which will earn spreads from bank partners on customer account balances.
CEO Eric Glyman reports that Ramp now serves over 30,000 businesses and processes $55 billion in annualized payment volume, a dramatic increase from $10 billion in January 2023. Despite its rapid growth, the company maintains a relatively low cash burn of less than $2 million per month, which Glyman attributes partly to the integration of AI across the organization.
✈️ THE TAKEAWAY
What’s next? 🤔 First and foremost, Ramp's spectacular growth trajectory and significant valuation increase signal important shifts in the fintech landscape. The company appears well-positioned to continue expanding its market share in the corporate expense management and payment space, where it competes with established players like Brex, American Express, and Concur. The integration of AI across Ramp's operations may represent the future direction for financial services companies. Glyman emphasized that AI has evolved from simple chatbots to being "deeply integrated into every part of the business," enabling automation of expenses, accounting, and yield optimization. This AI-first approach could become the standard model for fintech companies seeking to maintain operational efficiency while scaling rapidly. Ramp's secondary share sale also reflects a broader trend among mature startups that are delaying public offerings while providing liquidity options for employees and early investors. With its strong financial position and relatively low cash burn, Ramp can afford to remain private longer, potentially giving it more flexibility to pursue long-term strategic initiatives without the pressures of quarterly public reporting.
ICYMI: American Express’ Q4 2024: premium FinTech powerhouse poised for profitable growth 📈💳 [breaking down their Q4 2024 financials, what they tell us & what’s next for AmEx + a bonus dive into their competition]
🔎 What else I’m watching
Emirates NBD Enters Cryptocurrency Space 💱 Emirates NBD's digital banking unit, Liv, has introduced cryptocurrency trading on its mobile app in partnership with Aquanow and Zodia Custody. Users can now buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies within the Liv X app. This move aligns with the UAE's growing status as a crypto hub, with 30% of the population owning cryptocurrency, and the market is expected to grow by 8% annually. Emirates NBD aims to capitalize on this trend, positioning Liv as a pioneer in digital banking innovation.
Revolut Faces Licensing Issue in Ukraine 📜 Ukraine's central bank, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), has stated that Revolut does not have a license to operate in the country, despite the fintech's announcement that Ukrainian residents can open accounts. The NBU clarified that Revolut Bank UAB, based in Lithuania, has not received any licenses or permits from the NBU and has not submitted relevant applications. Ukrainian law requires foreign firms to either set up a branch or obtain a local banking license, both of which need NBU approval after a comprehensive assessment. The NBU emphasized the importance of compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements and its commitment to ensuring the stability of the Ukrainian banking system.
North Korea's $1.5B Bybit Hack 💸 North Korea is responsible for stealing $1.5 billion in virtual assets from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, according to the FBI. The hack, dubbed "TraderTraitor," involves the rapid conversion of stolen assets to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The FBI urges private entities to block transactions related to the laundering of these assets. North Korean cyber actors are targeting various organizations in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. This follows a joint statement by the US, South Korea, and Japan blaming North Korea for $659 million in crypto thefts in 2024.
💸 Following the Money
Cloud-based digital banking vendor Alkami has agreed to buy account-opening technology provider Mantl in a $400M deal.
Hands In, the fintech innovator in split payment solutions, has successfully raised over £1M in its latest funding round.
US-based online personal finance company and bank SoFi SOFI 0.00%↑ has closed a $697.6M securitization of loan platform business volume. ICYMI: SoFi’s Q4 2024: a digital financial powerhouse emerging from its lending roots 📈🏦 [breaking down their latest financials, what they mean & whether SoFi is worth your time and money in 2025]
👋 That’s it for today! Thank you for reading and have a relaxing Sunday! And if you enjoyed this newsletter, invite your friends and colleagues to sign up: