The European Union’s fintech industry has become a major infrastructure provider for global e-commerce. European companies now process trillions of euros in payments, provide financing to millions of online shoppers, connect merchants to local payment methods, and enable marketplaces to manage sellers, currencies, fraud, and payouts through a single platform.

The industry’s global importance is visible in the numbers:

• European B2C e-commerce turnover reached €842 billion in 2024.
• Adyen processed approximately €1.394 trillion in payments during 2025.
• Klarna facilitated $127.9 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2025.
• Klarna served approximately 118 million active consumers and 966,000 merchants by the end of 2025.
• Mollie provides payment services to more than 250,000 businesses.
• The euro area recorded approximately 77.7 billion non-cash payments in the first half of 2025.
• E-money transactions in the euro area reached approximately €300 billion during the same six-month period.

These figures show that EU fintech is no longer a niche financial-technology sector. It is part of the core infrastructure supporting international digital commerce.

Europe’s e-commerce and fintech market in numbers

European B2C e-commerce turnover increased from €784 billion in 2023 to €842 billion in 2024.

That represented:

• Nominal annual growth of 7%
• Real growth of approximately 4.6% after inflation
• An increase of €58 billion in one year

The expansion of online commerce is also reflected in consumer adoption.

In 2025, approximately 78% of EU internet users purchased goods or services online. In 2015, the equivalent share was approximately 62%.

Online-shopping adoption was particularly high among younger European consumers:

• 90% of internet users aged 25–34 shopped online
• 87% of those aged 35–44
• 84% of those aged 16–24

Fintech companies support this market by connecting shoppers, merchants, banks, card networks and local payment systems.

The volume of European payments is considerably larger than e-commerce turnover alone. The euro area recorded approximately 77.7 billion non-cash payments in the first half of 2025, an increase of about 7.7% compared with the same period one year earlier.

Excluding e-money payments, cards represented approximately 73.9% of the number of non-cash transactions. Credit transfers represented around 19.3%, while direct debits accounted for approximately 3.3%.

This scale provides European payment companies with a large domestic market in which to develop technology before expanding internationally.

Adyen demonstrates the global scale of EU payment infrastructure

Amsterdam-headquartered Adyen is one of the clearest examples of the EU fintech industry’s international impact.

During 2025, Adyen processed approximately €1.394 trillion in payment volume.

Its results included:

• €649 billion processed in the first half of 2025
• €745.3 billion processed in the second half
• €2.36 billion in annual net revenue
• €311 billion in point-of-sale payment volume

Adyen’s 2025 processed volume was approximately 65% larger than the entire €842 billion European B2C e-commerce market reported for 2024.

The comparison is not exact because Adyen processes both online and physical-store transactions. Nevertheless, it demonstrates the scale achieved by a single European fintech company.

Adyen provides payment infrastructure to international retailers, digital platforms, subscription companies and marketplaces. Its services can include:

• Online and in-store payments
• International and local payment methods
• Multi-currency processing
• Recurring transactions
• Fraud detection
• Payment authentication
• Marketplace payments
• Merchant payouts
• Financial accounts
• Card issuing

Adyen’s platform business also provides evidence of the growth of embedded finance.

In the third quarter of 2025, its platform net revenue reached €68.6 million, increasing by 50% year over year.

This suggests that marketplaces and software platforms increasingly want to integrate payments and financial services directly into their own products.

European BNPL has changed global online checkout

Sweden’s Klarna has helped turn buy now, pay later from a regional payment option into a global e-commerce product. Klarna reported $127.9 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2025, representing 22% annual growth.

By the end of that year, Klarna had:

• Approximately 118 million active consumers
• Around 966,000 merchants
• Operations across numerous European and international markets

By the first quarter of 2026, the company reported:

• 119 million active consumers
• More than one million merchants
• Quarterly gross merchandise volume of $33.7 billion
• Quarterly revenue of $1 billion
• GMV growth of 33% year over year

Klarna’s merchant network grew by approximately 49% in the year leading to the first quarter of 2026.

Its expansion shows how an EU fintech model can influence consumer expectations in markets such as the United States.

BNPL allows customers to postpone payment or divide the purchase price into installments. For merchants, it may reduce the immediate affordability barrier associated with higher-value purchases.

However, performance varies by market and product category. BNPL does not automatically guarantee higher conversion or average order values for every merchant.

The sector also faces increased scrutiny concerning consumer debt, affordability assessments and the use of multiple credit providers.

EU fintech makes cross-border e-commerce easier

International e-commerce requires merchants to manage more than card acceptance.

Businesses selling across borders must handle:

• Local payment preferences
• Currency conversion
• International acquiring
• Settlement currencies
• Refunds
• Fraud prevention
• Seller verification
• Regulatory compliance
• International payouts
• Financial reconciliation

EU fintech companies increasingly combine these capabilities into a single integration.

For example, an international merchant selling across Europe may need to offer:

• iDEAL in the Netherlands
• Bancontact in Belgium
• Bizum in Spain
• SEPA Direct Debit
• Local bank transfers
• Klarna
• International cards
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• Account-to-account payments

Dutch fintech Mollie provides payment services to more than 250,000 businesses across approximately 30 countries.

The company reported net-revenue growth of 29% in 2025 and expanded into 12 additional markets.

Payment aggregation is especially important for small and medium-sized businesses. Without fintech providers, merchants may need separate contracts, banking relationships and technical integrations for every payment method and market.

By centralizing these services, fintech reduces the cost and complexity of international expansion.

Open banking is creating an alternative to card payments

The EU’s revised Payment Services Directive, PSD2, established the regulatory basis for open banking.

PSD2 allowed licensed providers, with customer permission, to access banking information or initiate payments directly from bank accounts.

For e-commerce, this created an alternative to conventional card payments.

Account-to-account payments may offer merchants:

• Faster confirmation
• Reduced dependence on card networks
• Potentially lower transaction costs
• Lower exposure to card chargebacks
• Direct bank-based payment authorization
• Greater suitability for high-value purchases

Open banking is particularly significant because international card schemes still dominate much of Europe’s payment market.

Approximately two-thirds of euro-area card transactions are processed through non-European companies. Several euro-area countries remain entirely dependent on international card schemes.

The development of European account-to-account systems could therefore affect both payment costs and Europe’s financial independence.

Instant payments could accelerate e-commerce settlement

European instant-payment rules are intended to make euro transfers available within seconds, at any time of day.

For e-commerce businesses, instant payments could improve:

• Cash flow
• Payment confirmation
• Marketplace seller payouts
• Supplier payments
• Refund processing
• Treasury management

The opportunity is substantial because credit transfers already account for approximately 19.3% of euro-area non-cash transactions by volume, excluding e-money. Instant settlement could be particularly valuable for marketplaces that collect customer funds and distribute money to thousands of independent sellers.

Cards are unlikely to disappear. They remain widely accepted and provide established consumer protections, recurring-payment functionality and dispute mechanisms. However, instant bank payments could capture a larger share of e-commerce transactions where cost, speed or transaction value is particularly important.

E-money transactions reached €300 billion in six months

E-money has become another significant component of European digital commerce.

During the first half of 2025, the euro area recorded:

• Approximately 4.7 billion e-money payment transactions
• Transaction growth of 10.7% year over year
• A total transaction value of approximately €300 billion
• Value growth of 13.2%

E-money accounts represented approximately 98% of the number and 97% of the value of e-money transactions.

This infrastructure supports:

• Digital wallets
• Prepaid accounts
• Marketplace seller balances
• Merchant settlement accounts
• Multi-currency products
• Embedded financial accounts
• Business cards
• Platform payouts

For marketplaces, e-money infrastructure makes it possible to accept a consumer payment, deduct a commission, reserve funds for refunds, and distribute the remainder to one or several sellers.

These processes would be difficult to manage at scale using conventional bank transfers alone.

Fintech is turning marketplaces into financial-service providers

Marketplace and software platforms increasingly use fintech infrastructure to offer financial products directly to their merchants.

These services can include:

• Integrated payment processing
• Seller accounts
• Automated payouts
• Business cards
• Working-capital financing
• Foreign exchange
• Fraud prevention
• Identity verification
• Revenue reporting

This market is growing rapidly.

Adyen’s platform net revenue increased by 50% in the third quarter of 2025. In the first quarter of 2026, its platform revenue reached approximately €75 million, up 35% year over year, or 40% at constant currency.

Embedded finance allows platforms to generate revenue from payments while strengthening their relationship with merchants.

A business using the platform may no longer need to obtain separate services from a bank, payment processor, lender and card issuer. The platform can combine these capabilities through fintech APIs.

EU payment regulation has influenced global fraud prevention

The EU’s Strong Customer Authentication requirements changed how online payments are verified.

Many electronic transactions now require at least two independent authentication elements, such as:

• A password
• A registered mobile device
• A banking application
• A fingerprint
• Facial recognition

This encouraged global adoption of:

• 3-D Secure 2
• Biometric authentication
• Device recognition
• Risk-based authentication
• Transaction-risk analysis
• Banking-app approvals

The European Central Bank and European Banking Authority found that Strong Customer Authentication was effective against important forms of card fraud.

Nevertheless, fraud remains a major financial problem.

Across the EU and European Economic Area, losses reached:

• €2.2 billion from credit-transfer fraud in 2024
• €1.329 billion from card-payment fraud in 2024

Credit-transfer fraud losses increased by approximately 16% year over year, while card-fraud losses increased by around 29%.

Consumers bore approximately 85% of credit-transfer fraud losses, largely because many cases involved authorized payment scams. In these cases, customers were manipulated into approving the transaction themselves.

As a result, fintech fraud prevention is moving beyond stolen-card detection. Modern systems analyze device behavior, account history, customer location, payment values and behavioral patterns in real time.

The measurable impact on global e-commerce

EU fintech’s global e-commerce impact can be summarised through several major figures:

These numbers do not measure a single direct contribution to global e-commerce. No official statistical framework currently calculates exactly how much worldwide online revenue is generated by EU fintech.

However, the figures demonstrate the industry’s scale across payment processing, consumer finance, merchant acceptance, e-money and marketplace infrastructure.

The EU fintech industry has become a fundamental part of global e-commerce infrastructure.

Adyen processed approximately €1.394 trillion in 2025. Klarna facilitated $127.9 billion in annual merchandise volume and reached 119 million active consumers. Mollie serves more than 250,000 businesses, while euro-area e-money transactions reached approximately €300 billion in only six months.

These companies and payment systems help merchants:

• Enter new countries
• Accept local payment methods
• Manage several currencies
• Offer installment payments
• Prevent fraud
• Process marketplace payouts
• Embed financial services
• Access sales-based financing

The EU’s influence also extends beyond company performance. PSD2, open banking and Strong Customer Authentication have shaped payment regulation, security and financial innovation internationally.

Europe still faces challenges, including fragmented national payment habits, rising fraud losses and dependence on international card networks. Nevertheless, the numbers show that EU fintech has moved well beyond its regional market.

The post EU Fintech Industry Impact on Global E-commerce appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

The Airwallex European expansion is one of the most significant fintech investment moves in recent years, signaling a major shift in how cross-border payments and e-commerce infrastructure will evolve across the continent. With a $1.1 billion investment plan, Airwallex is positioning itself as a key challenger to European payment giants while accelerating the digitalization of global commerce.

What is Airwallex and Why It Matters

Airwallex is a global fintech company founded in 2015 that provides businesses with:

• Multi-currency accounts
• Cross-border payment processing
• FX (foreign exchange) infrastructure
• Spend management and financial automation

Its platform is designed to eliminate friction in international commerce—making it particularly relevant for e-commerce and cross-border businesses.

The company has grown rapidly, reaching:

• $1.2 billion in annual recurring revenue
• An $8 billion valuation (2025)
• Hundreds of thousands of global business customers

This positions Airwallex as a serious global infrastructure player—not just a fintech startup.

The $1.1 Billion Airwallex European Expansion Explained

In 2026, Airwallex announced plans to invest $1.135 billion over five years to expand across Europe and the broader EMEA region.

Key elements of the expansion

• $590M allocated to the UK as a strategic hub
• €200M investment in the Netherlands
• New market entries planned in:
  • Spain
  • Sweden
• Expansion into Germany with local operations and investment
• Hiring of around 100 engineers in London to build product capabilities

This is not just market entry—it is a full-scale infrastructure build-out across Europe.

Why Europe? The Strategic Rationale

Fragmented payments landscape

Europe remains one of the most complex regions for cross-border commerce due to:

• Multiple currencies
• Different banking systems
• Regulatory fragmentation

Airwallex’s core value proposition—simplifying international payments—fits perfectly into this environment.

Explosive regional growth

Airwallex is not entering Europe from scratch:

• EMEA revenue has more than doubled year-over-year
• Transaction volumes have tripled

This expansion is demand-driven, not speculative.

Competitive positioning

Airwallex is directly competing with:

• Stripe
• Adyen
• PayPal

Its differentiation lies in:

• Native multi-currency infrastructure
• Lower FX costs
• Unified global financial stack

Expansion Timeline and Market Rollout

UK as the European hub

London is becoming Airwallex’s operational center for Europe:

• Major hiring push
• Engineering base
• Regional leadership headquarters

Continental Europe expansion

Airwallex is executing a multi-country rollout strategy:

Germany

• Official launch in 2026
• Focus on local businesses expanding globally

Netherlands

• €200M investment
• Scaling Amsterdam operations

Nordics

• Introduction of local currencies
• First step into Scandinavian markets

Spain and Sweden

• New market entries announced for near-term expansion

What This Means for E-commerce and Cross-Border Businesses

The Airwallex European expansion is highly relevant for e-commerce players.

Lower barriers to international selling

Airwallex enables:

• Local currency pricing
• Faster international payments
• Reduced FX costs

This directly improves conversion rates and margins.

Unified financial infrastructure

Instead of stitching together multiple providers, businesses can:

• Manage payments
• Handle invoicing
• Control expenses

All within a single platform.

Faster global scaling

For European merchants:

• Selling globally becomes easier
• Entering new markets requires less operational overhead

This is especially critical for B2B e-commerce and marketplaces.

Investment Context: Backing and Future IPO

Airwallex is backed by major global investors including:

• Visa
• Mastercard
• Tencent
• Salesforce
• DST Global

The company is also:

• Considering an IPO within 3–4 years
• Expanding simultaneously in the US and Asia

This reinforces its ambition to become a global financial infrastructure layer for digital commerce.

Key Challenges and Risks

Despite strong momentum, the expansion is not without risks.

Regulatory complexity

Operating across multiple EU jurisdictions requires:

• Licensing
• Compliance with AML/KYC rules
• Local financial regulations

Strong competition

European incumbents like Adyen and Stripe already have:

• Deep market penetration
• Strong merchant relationships

Execution risk

Scaling across multiple countries simultaneously is operationally complex.

Strategic Takeaways

The Airwallex European expansion highlights several broader trends:

Infrastructure is the new battleground

Investment is shifting toward:

• Payments
• Financial automation
• Cross-border enablement

Europe is a priority growth market

Despite fragmentation, Europe offers:

• Massive e-commerce potential
• Strong cross-border demand

Fintech is merging with e-commerce

Airwallex is not just a payments provider—it is becoming:

• A financial operating system for global commerce

Airwallex’s $1.1 billion European expansion marks a turning point in the evolution of cross-border commerce infrastructure. By investing heavily in technology, talent, and regional presence, the company is positioning itself as a central player in enabling global trade for European businesses.

As e-commerce continues to globalize, platforms like Airwallex are no longer optional—they are becoming foundational.

The post Airwallex European Expansion: A $1.1B Bet on the Future of Cross-Border Commerce in Europe appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Adyen, the global financial technology platform, announced the launch of Payout Services. This offering enables Adyen's customers to pay out funds purchased with the preferred method of their affiliated users or partners faster. 

The new functionality eliminates unnecessary delays and third parties in the fund's movement process; Adyen's goal is to free up millions in daily cash flow for its customers, supporting greater operational efficiency and helping companies achieve their ambitions faster.

Adyen's ability to do this derives from its banking licenses, branches, and direct connection to banking schemes and cards in real time. By moving funds from point A to B within a single banking infrastructure, payments can be processed up to three days faster than the industry standard.

One single API for Ayden Payout Services

With a single API, Adyen's clients can pay globally to their user base, such as gig economy workers and marketplace vendors, greatly enhancing the platform experience with faster access to cash. The launch makes it easier for customers to access more cash to earn interest, invest in R&D for growth and minimize their need for external funding. With Adyen's API, instead of managing multiple vendors in different regions, creating operational complexity and slowing a company's ability to scale, customers can manage funds on a global scale through a single partner.

For platform end users, payments through real-time banking and card schemes offer faster access to their funds. According to the Boston Consulting Group, 75% of SMEs expressed the need to settle on the same day or faster. By accelerating payments, Adyen's platform customers can meet this demand and enhance their end-user experience. 

"We see this as an opportunity to provide a market-leading solution that supports real-time payments," acknowledges Roelant Prince CCO, Adyen. 

"We can greatly streamline our customers' cash flow, improving corporate treasury management and enabling end users to receive faster access to their cash. Our solution makes it easier for companies to accept and pay out funds in one place, acting as a catalyst for business growth through our innovative technology."

The post Ayden announced Payout Services, a new global fast payments service appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Taclia announced its successful investment round of over €6 million from Cusp Capital and Stage 2 Capital. The startup in Barcelona offers small and medium-sized businesses a free management platform to simplify their daily processes. 

What makes Taclia unique is that the platform combines functionalities that cover essential business operations, such as service and appointment scheduling, customer tracking, budget and invoice creation, real-time employee location, and time and attendance tracking. The tool helps its ever-growing customer base to digitize their businesses by simplifying tasks, improving productivity, and increasing efficiency.

Winning over an average of 500 new customers per week, Taclia has quickly become one of the fastest-growing management software programs. Product-led growth drives customer engagement and value without needing a salesperson. 

Taclia aims to become a global service

Alex Casals, founder and CEO of Taclia, is grateful to have obtained the backing of the renowned investors: "Cusp Capital and Stage 2 Capital have identified Taclia's strong potential, which encourages us to keep working to make our platform the perfect ally for businesses, easy to use and fully customizable." Taclia plans to use the newly obtained financial means to improve the product further, grow its team, and scale worldwide. 

Backed by Cusp Capital and Stage 2 Capital: both funds see great potential for Taclia. Cusp Capital, is a German investment fund known for investing in companies such as Zalando, Delivery Hero, and Klarna, has turned its attention to Taclia. 

Maximilian Rowoldt, Cusp Capital investor, is excited to accompany Taclia on its journey to become the ultimate global technology solution for business: "At Cusp Capital, we are convinced that software solutions covering all essential business functions will revolutionize business. By using Taclia, companies can operate at new levels of speed and cost and address challenges such as labor shortages through greater efficiency."

Barcelona, a start-up heaven 

There are currently around 1,900 'startups' in Catalonia, with most of them concentrated in Barcelona and following a growth of almost 75% since 2016, according to the Barcelona and Catalonia Startup Hub. The autonomous capital has a deep-rooted tradition in these companies, within the health technology sector, and is boosted by grants from the Catalan government and its universities.

Barcelona's startup network has been diversifying into other sectors, such as mobility and sustainability, thanks to the support and capital provided by numerous investors. At the same time, the city has experienced the arrival of several fintech (financial technology) companies from London, tempted by the better post-Brexit banking conditions, the good weather, or the lower cost of living.

The post Taclia gets over €6 million investment from Cusp Capital appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

One, a Walmart-backed fintech startup, has announced its plans to launch a ‘buy now, pay later’ loan system. 

The venture, called One, is gearing up to launch its version of the payment service as soon as next year. The effort was partly motivated by a more challenging economic backdrop and consumers feeling pinched by inflation.

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Retail executives, including Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, have spoken about even wealthier consumers feeling pinched by inflation. About 75% of the retailer’s market share gains in groceries have come from households that make more than $100,000 in the past two quarters.

In a CNBC interview this week, McMillon said customers are feeling stressed: “We’ve got some customers who are more budget-conscious that have been under inflation pressure for months,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “That sustained pressure in some categories, I think, is something customers have to deal with as we approach Christmas.”

Walmart's-backed fintech is a plan for low-income families 

The news about a Walmart-backed fintech interest in ‘buy now, pay later’ was first reported by The Information.

Walmart, the country’s largest private employer and its biggest grocer has long offered financial services at many of its stores. It has a money center where customers can use banking-related services, such as printing checks, sending or receiving money, or loading prepaid debit cards. 

Many of those services are geared toward families that have lower incomes, do not have relationships with a traditional bank, or do not have the credit history to qualify for credit cards.

Last year, Walmart went a step further by creating and backing a fintech startup with Ribbit Capital, one of the investment firms behind Robinhood. The fintech startup is independent, but Walmart has the most significant stake. 

Its board includes several top executives, including Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner and chief financial officer John David Rainey. Rainey, Walmart’s new CFO, recently joined the board and is the former CFO of PayPal.

The post Walmart-backed fintech will launch ‘buy now, pay later’ loans appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.