Klarna is the top European fintech unicorn for spinning out startups

LONDON — More startups are being spun out of Swedish digital payments firm Klarna than any other financial technology unicorn in Europe, according to a new report from venture capital firm Accel.

Accel’s “Fintech Founder Factory” report shows that alumni from Klarna have gone on to create a total of 62 new startups, including the likes of Swedish lending technology firm Anyfin, regulatory compliance platform Bits Technology, and AI-powered coding platform Pretzel AI.

That is more than any other venture-backed fintech startup worth $1 billion or more in the region.

This includes the digital banking app Revolut, whose former employees have founded 49 startups. It also includes money transfer app Wise and online-only bank N26, where ex-staff at both firms have started 33 companies each, according to Accel’s data.

Accel labels these companies “founder factories,” on the basis that they have become breeding grounds for talent that often go on to establish their own firms.

“We now have a very long list of large, durable, successful companies in Europe across the different ecosystems — including London, Berlin, and Stockholm — that have been generating interesting outcomes,” Luca Bocchio, partner at Accel, told CNBC.

Out of 98 venture-backed fintech unicorns in Europe and Israel, 82 have produced 635 new tech-enabled startups, according to Accel’s report, which was published Tuesday ahead of a fintech event the firm is hosting in London Wednesday.

The data also factors in fintech unicorns based in Israel. However, most of the biggest fintech founder factories come from Europe.

Klarna has attracted headlines in recent months due to commentary from the buy now, pay later giant’s founder and CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, about using artificial intelligence to help reduce headcount.

Klarna, which currently has a company-wide hiring freeze in place, cut its overall employee headcount by roughly 24% to 3,800 in August this year. Siemiatkowski has said that Klarna was able to reduce the number of people it hires thanks to its implementation of generative AI.

He is looking to further reduce Klarna’s headcount to 2,000 employees — but has yet to specify a time for this target.

Klarna’s ability to produce so many new startups had little to do with cutbacks at the company or its focus on using AI to boost worker productivity and hiring fewer people overall, according to Accel’s Bocchio.

Asked about why Klarna topped the ranking of fintech founder factories in Europe, Bocchio said: “Klarna is an organization that is coming of age now.”

That means it is currently “well-positioned to produce interesting founders,” Bocchio added — both because it’s large and has been around for a long time, and because of the “interesting” ways its staff work internally.

Another notable finding from Accel’s report is that most companies founded by former fintech unicorn employees tend to do so in the same cities and hubs where their employer was founded.

Nearly two-thirds (61%) of companies founded by former employees of fintech unicorns were founded in the same city as the unicorn, according to Accel.

More broadly, the numbers show that Europe is experiencing a “flywheel effect,” according to Bocchio, as tech firms are scaling to such a large size that staff can take learnings from them and leave to set up their ventures.

“I think the flywheel is spinning because that talent is remaining inside the flywheel. That talent is not going anywhere.” This, he said, “speaks to the maturity and appetite” of individuals within Europe’s fintech founder factories. “We expect this trend to continue. I don’t see any reason why it should stop.”