Klarna’s Merchant Base Jumps 47% to Pass 1 Million

Digital bank/pay later company Klarna says its global merchant base now exceeds 1 million.

The number of merchants offering the company’s payment methods rose by 47% in the last year, the Swedish FinTech announced Tuesday (March 17).

Klarna added that it added 285,000 merchants in 2025, more than 115,000 of them in the closing quarter of the year, as it expands its agreements with payment services providers.

“Home repairs, a new couch, salon appointments, gym memberships – these are facts of life for most people, but the way they pay for them hasn’t kept up,” David Sykes, Klarna’s chief commercial officer, said in a news release. “Reaching 1 million merchants is a reflection of how deeply embedded Klarna is becoming in everyday money management, and the acceleration across verticals and markets shows no signs of slowing down.”

The release added that leisure, sports and hobby is Klarna’s fastest-growing merchant category, up 91% year over year last month, “reflecting growing consumer demand for flexible payments in wellness and fitness.”

Klarna also announced in February that its daily app users had climbed 53% in the last year to reach nine million people. The company attributed this growth to more frequent use of its banking, spending and shopping offerings as customers make these services part of their day-to-day money management.

“When people use Klarna every day, it shows we’re delivering on our vision of becoming the global digital bank for the next generation,” Klarna Co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said in a news release.

Meanwhile, new research from PYMNTS Intelligence research finds that pay later options are increasingly segmented according to financial purpose.

“Consumers are not simply selecting a payment button at checkout. They are choosing a financial strategy,” PYMNTS wrote in a report Tuesday on the findings.

The research found that 31% of consumers used credit card installment plans in January, compared with 12% who used buy now pay later (BNPL) offerings, a gap that “shows that installment products have become the most widely used pay later option across demographics and income levels.”

In addition, the research shows that 43% of consumers choose BNPL chiefly for speed and approval, which suggests that these shoppers view this option as a fast-access tool at checkout, and not a long-term credit plan.

However, 34.2% of consumers point to credit management as the primary reason they use credit card installment plans, the report said.

“This positions installment products as structured borrowing tools used for budgeting and managing credit limits,” PYMNTS wrote.