Founders, investors, and support organizations active in Payments.
Choice provides QR payments and digital menus for restaurants, enabling faster ordering and higher table turnover. The platform is growing quickly across CEE and Eastern Europe as restaurants digitize front-of-house operations. It reduces staffing overhead while giving restaurants richer customer data. By 2026, Choice is a fast-scaling Czech restaurant-tech player.
Klarna is a Swedish fintech company that pioneered the “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) model globally. Founded in 2005 by Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Niklas Adalberth, and Victor Jacobsson, Klarna started by offering online shoppers in Sweden a way to purchase goods on invoice (pay after delivery). Over the next decade, the company expanded across Europe and beyond, becoming a dominant online payments provider. As of 2021, Klarna was Europe’s highest-valued private tech company at $45.6 billion, reflecting meteoric growth fueled by consumers’ appetite for installment payments. Klarna’s app and services allow users to split purchases into interest-free installments or pay later, and it partners with over 450,000 retailers worldwide, including global brands like H&M, IKEA, and Nike. The company has over 150 million users across 45 countries and handled $80 billion in transaction volume in 2021. Klarna’s journey, however, has seen dramatic swings: after reaching a $45B valuation in mid-2021, a combination of rising interest rates and tech market downturn led to a downround in 2022, cutting its valuation to $6.7 billion (an 85% drop). The company restructured, laying off 10% of its staff, and refocused on profitability. By 2023, Klarna returned to profit and saw renewed growth, aided by expanding beyond BNPL into a full shopping app with price comparison, loyalty features, and banking services (Klarna obtained a banking license in Europe in 2017). In 2025, Klarna reportedly delayed an IPO amid market volatility but ultimately went public in September 2025, raising $1.37 billion. Despite valuation fluctuations, Klarna remains the global leader in BNPL, with a strong brand among Gen Z and millennial shoppers. Its journey from a small Stockholm startup to a financial giant serving 65 million customers (2025) at one point valued at $75 billion exemplifies the rise (and resiliency) of Europe’s fintech sector.
Running since 2014. Global fintech accelerator, equity-free six-month program (mostly virtual) providing access to Mastercard clients and partners. Supported 60+ fintech and digital asset companies; notable alumni include Divide (acquired by Google). Scope: International.
Payments infrastructure provider helping EU businesses accept local and global methods.
Organizer of Money20/20 Europe, a flagship fintech and payments conference in Amsterdam.
Flagship fintech and payments conference at RAI Amsterdam, convening banks, payment leaders, regulators, and startups. Core venue for partnerships in payments infrastructure, compliance tech, cross-border finance, and EU market expansion.
Payze is a Tbilisi-based fintech company building payment infrastructure for merchants in emerging markets, with a focus on CIS and regional cross-border commerce. Founded in 2020, the platform offers unified online payment acceptance and automated split payments for marketplaces and e-commerce operators. Payze is backed by ecosystem supporters including Y Combinator, 500 Global (via 500 Georgia/Eurasia), and GITA.
Mobile payments network enabling peer-to-peer transfers and low-cost in-store payments without cards.
Text'nPayMe is a Yerevan-based fintech startup building keyboard-first payment experiences for peer-to-peer and micro-transactions inside messaging flows. Its infrastructure enables users to initiate secure transfers directly within chat interfaces without switching to separate banking apps. The company emerged from the 500 Eurasia ecosystem and targets embedded finance use cases for banks and digital platforms.
TransferGo is an international money transfer company focused on migrants, serving customers in 160+ countries.
Twisto is a fintech offering buy-now-pay-later and online payment solutions for consumers and merchants.