How Top Teams Are Built to Scale
At PCN, we’ve always believed that how a company is built matters just as much as what it offers. In the BNPL Report 2025, our team dug deep into the organizational structures, workforce models, and strategic choices of Europe’s leading Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) players, from Klarna and Scalapay to Ratepay, Alma, and others.
What we uncovered is a new blueprint for scaling in fintech: one where licensing, product ownership, risk governance, and engineering ratios shape not just internal performance, but long-term competitiveness.
In this blog, we walk you through the most important highlights from our research, integrating key visual slides to tell the full story behind how BNPL firms are built.
1. Workforce Composition: The Engine Behind Growth
We started by analyzing the employee composition across nine leading BNPL providers in Europe. While product offerings may look similar on the surface, the way these companies structure their people varies dramatically.
What we found:
- Klarna stands out with a remarkably high Eng/PM ratio (10.8). For every product manager, there are over 10 engineers, a sign of a streamlined and tech-led approach to product delivery.
- Payla, though smaller, has a very tech-biased team, with nearly one engineer for every two non-engineers (Eng/Non-Eng ratio of 0.48).
- Ratepay demonstrates strong backend capabilities, with nearly 3 tech employees for every 4 non-tech employees (Eng+IT/Non-Eng ratio: 0.74).
- On the other end, firms like In3 and Oney operate with extremely low engineering intensity, typical of platforms that rely heavily on outsourced or partner tech stacks.
These numbers aren’t just HR metrics, they’re a mirror of each company’s strategic DNA.
2. Engineering vs. Sales Focus: The Strategic Trade-Off
Some BNPL companies scale through technical superiority, while others prioritize merchant acquisition and market presence. We see this reflected in how they allocate talent.
Engineering-Driven Firms (30%+ engineering):
- Klarna, Billie, and Payla all fall into this category.
- These companies rely on proprietary platforms, strong tech backbones, and relatively lean sales functions.
Sales-Heavy Firms (20%+ sales):
- Scalapay and Alma lead here.
- They’ve prioritized rapid merchant onboarding and country-specific expansion, notably Italy (Scalapay) and France (Alma).
Meanwhile, hybrid models like Riverty and Oney maintain a balanced mix of tech, finance, and sales, a reflection of their banking and BPO heritage.
3. White-Label vs. Branded BNPL: Two Very Different Machines
The report draws a firm line between white-label and branded BNPL players.
White-label players serve as BNPL infrastructure, focusing on backend integration with merchants, with few end-user touchpoints. Branded BNPLs, by contrast, are customer-facing brands that need big sales and support functions to grow. This split determines not just how companies hire, but who they sell to and how they scale.
Also licensing isn’t just a regulatory necessity, it’s a strategic lever.
Licensed banks like Klarna and Oney operate with high autonomy but also carry the weight of compliance and oversight. Their structures reflect this with centralized risk teams, dedicated legal functions, and layered governance.
Fintech-licensed payment institutions (e.g., Alma, Riverty) balance speed and structure. They often adopt hybrid risk models and scalable operations.
Unlicensed or partner-based models (e.g., Payla, In3) move faster, operate leaner, and enter markets through third-party arrangements, but have limited control over customer experience and capital.
These models drive fundamental differences in operations, cost structures, and even product development velocity.
4. Who Owns Product, Tech, and Risk?
Organizational charts differ more than you’d expect, even between players of similar size.
Examples from the field:
- Klarna runs one of the most complex orgs, with AI-led operations, full CXO coverage, and 500+ outsourced roles. It’s the most horizontally scaled model we saw.
- Riverty, in contrast, places product under the CTO, with centralized in-house ops, reflecting its corporate roots.
- Scalapay lacks a formal CPO, but balances internal engineering with selective outsourcing, especially in fraud.
- Alma embeds risk into operations, while Payla keeps a lean, specialized risk-legal team tightly aligned to its backend product model.
Smaller players tend to blur lines between roles. Product, tech, and compliance are often housed under the same leaders, a move that favors speed and simplicity at early stages.
5. Small vs. Large BNPL Models: Structure Drives Scale
We broke down BNPL firms into small vs. large player archetypes, and the differences are stark.
Small BNPLs (In3, Payla, Billie, Alma):
- Flat hierarchy (1–2 layers max)
- Generalist engineers using off-the-shelf tools
- Risk functions embedded in operations or legal
- Minimal outsourcing beyond payment providers
- One or two operational hubs
Large BNPLs (Klarna, Riverty, Oney):
- Multi-layered orgs: CEO → Chiefs → Domain Leads → Teams
- Deep specialization in engineering, AI/ML, compliance
- Formal audit and board reporting structures
- Selective outsourcing (customer support, AML ops)
- Distributed, international hubs (e.g., Klarna in Berlin, Stockholm, London)
These aren’t cosmetic differences. They define what kind of scale a company can achieve, and at what cost.
Final Thoughts: Why Organizational Design is the Hidden Advantage
What this report ultimately reveals is that organizational design has become a competitive weapon in the BNPL space. Behind every fast-growing BNPL brand is a set of deliberate choices about team composition, licensing, product leadership, and operational scale.
Some companies, like Klarna and Payla, are built around engineering scale and automation, while others, like Alma and Scalapay, drive growth through sales intensity and merchant onboarding. Firms with full banking licenses build for control and compliance, while lighter, partner-based models chase speed and flexibility.
There’s no one ideal setup, but the most successful BNPL players know exactly who they are and organize accordingly. As the market matures and competition sharpens, efficiency, scalability, and strategic clarity in org design may prove to be the ultimate differentiator.
At PCN, we’ll continue to monitor these shifts, and help fintechs build teams that reflect not just where they are, but where they’re going.
Want to get more insights into fintech hiring?
Contact us or reach out directly to PCN CEO Rogier Rouppe van der Voort, at rogier@teampcn.com.
