Hey Fintech'ers 👋

📰 Fintecher Stories – May 25th, 2025 has officially landed — your Sunday fintech fix, refreshed for the long weekend wind-down and sharper than ever. 🌤️📲

Whether you’re enjoying the slower pace of a bank holiday weekend, catching up on key headlines, or just taking a breather before the week ramps back up, we’ve distilled this week’s most important signals into a crisp 5-minute read.

This week: Klarna posts Q1 earnings and lets an AI-generated CEO break the news, Meta launches a startup-friendly Llama program, Visa steps up its embedded payments play, Airwallex raises $300M to fuel global growth, and NatWest links up with MuchBetter for business banking.

So top up your coffee ☕, kick back for a moment, and start your week smarter. 🚀

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Delving into the leading 5 fintech stories of the week:

🗞️ Story 1: "Klarna uses AI-generated CEO to share Q1 earnings amid mounting losses." 🧠💬

🗞️ Story 2: "Meta launches startup accelerator to push adoption of Llama AI models." 🦙🚀

🗞️ Story 3: "Visa launches embedded payments program to help B2B scale faster." 💳⚙️

🗞️ Story 4: "Airwallex raises $300M Series F to expand global fintech footprint." 🌍💰

🗞️ Story 5: "MuchBetter and NatWest team up to launch digital business accounts." 🏦🤝

🗞 Story #1

Klarna delivered its Q1 2025 earnings report using a synthetic AI-generated version of CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, marking a first for the buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm. The deepfake CEO highlighted key performance metrics, including a $150 million quarterly loss, despite a 30% increase in revenue year-over-year. Klarna emphasized progress in AI integration, cost cutting, and U.S. expansion. However, the innovative format couldn't overshadow mounting losses and challenges in achieving sustainable profitability as competition heats up and scrutiny around BNPL business models increases.

💡 Why It Matters: Klarna's use of a deepfake CEO is both headline-grabbing and symbolic. It's a bold nod to its AI-first future, but also a potential distraction from fundamental financial concerns. As the BNPL market matures, investors will demand more than narrative flair—they'll want a clear path to profitability. Klarna's willingness to experiment is admirable, but high production values won't mask losses forever. The real test lies in whether the company can pivot from marketing bravado to margin discipline.

📰 Read full story here

🗞 Story #2

Meta has introduced a startup acceleration initiative aimed at promoting the adoption of its open-source Llama AI models. The program offers selected startups access to early versions of Meta's models, technical support, and cloud credits, providing a competitive alternative to offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic. Meta's move is part of a broader strategy to embed Llama within enterprise AI ecosystems and create a robust community around its models. By targeting early-stage innovation, Meta hopes to entrench Llama in commercial deployments before closed models dominate market share.

💡 Why It Matters: This is Meta playing long-term chess in the AI platform wars. By seeding its models among startups now, it increases the odds that Llama becomes part of the infrastructure layer for future applications. The open-source angle also gives Meta a counter-narrative to Big Tech lock-in concerns, appealing to developers and enterprises alike. The strategic bet: own the ecosystem, not just the model. If it works, Llama may become the Android to OpenAI’s iOS.

📰 Read full story here

🗞 Story #3

Visa has launched an embedded payments enablement program designed to help platforms and SaaS businesses integrate seamless payments into their offerings. Through a new network of certified partners and APIs, Visa aims to simplify onboarding, compliance, and functionality for platforms embedding payment capabilities. This initiative is part of Visa's broader push to modernize its infrastructure and meet the growing demand for frictionless, invisible financial experiences across B2B and B2C ecosystems.

💡 Why It Matters: Visa understands that the future of payments is contextual and embedded—where finance disappears into user experiences. By making payments infrastructure easier to access and deploy, it cements its role not just as a processor but as a platform enabler. As fintech unbundles and re-bundles into vertical SaaS, Visa wants to power the pipes. The move also signals growing competition with Stripe, Adyen, and newer embedded finance players.

📰 Read full story here

Story #4

Airwallex has secured $300 million in a Series F funding round, bringing its total valuation to $7 billion. The cross-border payments and financial infrastructure platform plans to use the capital to expand its global footprint, deepen product development, and pursue potential acquisitions. With backing from major institutional investors, the funding round reflects confidence in Airwallex's ability to capitalize on the accelerating demand for real-time, international financial services among businesses and digital platforms.

💡 Why It Matters: Airwallex's raise isn’t just about scale—it’s a signal that the infrastructure layer of fintech remains a hot battleground. As global commerce becomes increasingly digital and fragmented, the value lies in connecting it all seamlessly. Airwallex is betting on owning that connectivity, especially for high-growth regions and underserved segments. With geopolitical tensions reshaping trade flows, players like Airwallex are positioning themselves as agile alternatives to legacy banking rails.

📰 Read full story here

🗞 Story #5

Payments company MuchBetter has teamed up with NatWest to launch digital business accounts tailored to SMEs. The accounts aim to simplify money management for small businesses by integrating payments, invoicing, and expense tracking into a single platform. The partnership leverages MuchBetter's fintech agility with NatWest's infrastructure and trust. As traditional banks face mounting pressure to innovate in the SME segment, partnerships like this offer a faster route to delivering modern financial services.

💡 Why It Matters: SMEs are a historically underserved market in financial services, often caught between clunky bank products and underpowered fintech tools. By combining a modern UX with trusted banking infrastructure, MuchBetter and NatWest are aiming to close that gap. This is also a broader signal of how banks can collaborate with fintechs to stay relevant—not by building everything themselves, but by integrating smarter, faster solutions. Expect more incumbents to follow suit.

📰 Read full story here

And that's a wrap fintech'ers, till next week. 🎬👋

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Disclaimers: (1) Please be aware that the opinions I express in this newsletter are my own and do not represent the viewpoints of any organisation I am associated with. (2) This newsletter is intended solely for educational purposes, and none of its content should be interpreted as any form of investment or financial guidance.

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