Finance
Sweden's Klarna swings to loss as fast growth hikes costs, shares fall 23%
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 19, 2026
2 min readLast updated: February 19, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 19, 2026
2 min readLast updated: February 19, 2026
Klarna reported Q4 revenue of $1.08B, up 38% YoY, narrowly topping $1.07B forecasts as U.S. growth accelerated. GMV rose 32% to $38.7B and banking users doubled to 15.8M; full results arrive February 26, 2026.
By Supantha Mukherjee
STOCKHOLM, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Swedish "buy now, pay later" services provider and online bank Klarna swung to a net loss in the fourth quarter and gave weaker-than-expected guidance for 2026 as fast growth also hiked costs, sending the U.S.-listed group's shares down 23% in early trade on Thursday.
Klarna's net loss for the October to December period stood at $26 million against a profit of $40 million a year earlier, missing an average forecast loss of $9.8 million expected in an LSEG poll of analysts.
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said that the company's rapid growth weighed on results as costs were booked up front while the revenue and profit would come later.
"As growth comes down a little bit, that will start to play out very favourably," Siemiatkowski told Reuters.
Quarterly revenue at the fintech group, which went public in New York in September, crossed the billion-dollar mark for the first time, rising 38% year on year to $1.08 billion, while analysts on average forecast sales of $1.07 billion.
"The company is growing fast, and evidently the transition from scaling to engagement and lending growth is weighing on some KPIs (key performance indicators)," JPMorgan wrote in a note to clients.
Higher processing and funding costs were key reasons for the weaker than expected results, and the outlook for 2026 was also below expectation, the analysts wrote.
The company's share price fell 23% to a record low of $14.53 by 1457 GMT.
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% 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.
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Anna Ringstrom, Joe Bavier and Elaine Hardcastle)
Klarna’s fourth-quarter performance, highlighted by revenue surpassing $1.08B, beating estimates, and accelerating growth in the U.S. alongside gains in GMV and users.
Sales rose 38% year over year to $1.08B versus a $1.07B forecast. GMV increased 32% to $38.7B, reflecting strong transaction volumes.
The U.S., Klarna’s largest market, saw GMV jump 43% and revenue surge 58% on expanding merchant adoption and consumer usage.
Klarna plans to publish its complete fourth-quarter earnings on February 26, 2026.
Yes. Management said early AI adoption has improved efficiency, enabling a smaller workforce while raising average employee compensation by about 60% since 2022.
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