The deep dive · NASDAQ: SEZL · Read November 1, 2026

Sezzle

A small pay-later company with big margins. About 200 employees, revenue up two thirds last year, and a founder who owns 39% of the stock and has pledged most of it.

Proxy statement, Oct 9, 2026
Since you opened this page
Sezzle's revenue at its last-quarter pace of $19 a second.
Revenue
$450M in 2025, up 66%. Q2 2026 grew another 52%.
Profit
+$177M operating income in 2025, a 39% margin.
Debt
$124M drawn on a $300M credit line backed by its loans.
Watch
39.4% owned by the CEO, who pledged 11.9M shares for personal loans.
AI
70% of support questions answered by its AI chatbot, says the company.
Hiring
201 staff in the US and Canada, plus contractors mainly in Colombia and Mexico.
Listings
163 → 165 remote listings since Oct 10.
01 · The business

Half its money is fees on each purchase.

Sezzle earns a cut every time someone splits a purchase. Subscriptions (Sezzle Premium and Anywhere) are a fifth of revenue. The fastest-growing slice is other income, which nearly tripled in a year.

52%
Transaction income, $234M
26%
Income from other sources, $117M
22%
Subscriptions, $99M
10-K FY2025, revenue disaggregation
The moat, in three parts
  1. 1
    Customers who pay a monthly fee
    854,000 active subscribers at June 2026, up 76% in a year. Subscription revenue was $99.4M in 2025.
    Sezzle Q2 2026 results
  2. 2
    A very lean cost base
    201 employees produced $450M of revenue and a 39% operating margin in 2025. Personnel cost was $54.8M.
    10-K FY2025
  3. 3
    Its own credit score for short loans
    The Prophet Score combines internal risk signals and consumer data to predict repayment. Credit loss provision ran 2.4% of sales in Q2 2026.
    10-K FY2025; Q2 2026 results
The competition
TradingView, Oct 30 close
CompanyWorthRevenueGrowthPer employeePaid per $1Stock, 1 yr
Sezzle$4.56B$532M+43%$2.65M$8.80+96%
Affirm$24.9B$3.95B+32%$1.67M$6.51+2%
Klarna$5.02B$4.04B+34%$1.43M$1.25−64%
PayPal$47.4B$34.4B+5%$1.45M$1.42−18%
Block$45.8B$25.0B+5%$2.45M$1.850%
  • Sezzle
    Worth
    $4.56B
    Revenue
    $532M
    Growth
    +43%
    Per employee
    $2.65M
    Paid per $1
    $8.80
    Stock, 1 yr
    +96%
  • Affirm
    Worth
    $24.9B
    Revenue
    $3.95B
    Growth
    +32%
    Per employee
    $1.67M
    Paid per $1
    $6.51
    Stock, 1 yr
    +2%
  • Klarna
    Worth
    $5.02B
    Revenue
    $4.04B
    Growth
    +34%
    Per employee
    $1.43M
    Paid per $1
    $1.25
    Stock, 1 yr
    −64%
  • PayPal
    Worth
    $47.4B
    Revenue
    $34.4B
    Growth
    +5%
    Per employee
    $1.45M
    Paid per $1
    $1.42
    Stock, 1 yr
    −18%
  • Block
    Worth
    $45.8B
    Revenue
    $25.0B
    Growth
    +5%
    Per employee
    $2.45M
    Paid per $1
    $1.85
    Stock, 1 yr
    0%

Investors pay $8.80 for every dollar Sezzle brings in. Its peers here range from $1.25 to $6.51, about 5.4 times their median of $1.64.

Sezzle, TradingViewAffirm, TradingViewKlarna, TradingViewPayPal, TradingViewBlock (Afterpay), TradingView
02 · The money · April to June 2026, its latest reported quarter

Sezzle brought in $150 million in 91 days.

+$51M
on the same 91 days a year earlier
$1.6M
a day, every day of the quarter
$68,544
an hour, around the clock
$1,142
a minute

That is about $51 million more than the same three months a year earlier. Each of its 201 employees brought in about $2.24 million over the year, about $6,140 a day.

Revenue is not profit. It is the money that came in before Sezzle pays any of its costs.

10-Q Q2 2026; employees from 10-K FY2025
02 · The turn

Operating profit grew from $22 million to $177 million.

Revenue more than doubled in two years. In FY2025 it kept 39 cents of every revenue dollar as operating profit.

Revenue
Money coming in, per fiscal year
Operating profit
What is left after running the business
  • FY2023: kept 14¢ of every $1
  • FY2024: kept 30¢ of every $1
  • FY2025: kept 39¢ of every $1
10-K FY2025 and FY2024, statements of operations
Revenue per employee

Sezzle brings in more per person than every peer here.

  1. Sezzle$2.65M
  2. Block$2.45M
  3. Affirm$1.67M
  4. PayPal$1.45M
  5. Klarna$1.43M
$1.0M$3.0M
Trailing revenue divided by employees, from the same market read as the table above.
The balance sheet

Sezzle borrows against the short loans it makes. The line was renewed in May 2026 at a much lower rate and runs to 2029, so funding is not a near-term worry.

$124Mdrawn on a loan-backed line, about $80M of cash
$124M
credit line backed by its loans
$126M
unused room on that line
$80M
cash and equivalents
10-Q Q2 2026
03 · Footnote flags

What the filings say, and what we think it means.

The fact is the filing's. The read, in italics, is ours.

  1. 01
    Watch

    The founder owns 39% and has borrowed against most of it.

    CEO Charles Youakim owns 13.4M shares (39.4%). He has pledged 11,863,600 shares to secure personal debt. Insiders as a group own 43.9%.

    One person effectively steers the company. If the stock fell hard, a lender could force sales of pledged shares, which can push the price down further.

    Proxy statement, Oct 9, 2026
  2. 02
    Neutral

    Two executives' relatives are on the payroll.

    The President's brother earned about $283,800 and the CEO's brother-in-law about $197,000 in 2025. The audit committee reviewed both.

    Small amounts and disclosed, as required. Normal for a founder-run firm, but worth knowing about the culture at a 200-person company.

    Proxy statement, related-party transactions
  3. 03
    Watch

    An open control weakness in its accounting.

    Management found a material weakness in how it classifies note receivable cash flows. Still open at June 30, 2026, pending testing of new controls.

    It affects which line cash shows up on, not total profit. Still, a lean finance team at a fast-growing lender is a known risk.

    10-Q Q2 2026, controls and procedures
  4. 04
    Neutral

    2024 profit got a tax boost.

    In 2024 net income ($78.5M) beat pretax income ($67.3M) because of an $11.2M tax benefit, as the valuation allowance fell by $28.7M. In 2025 it paid a normal $29.8M tax bill.

    Growth in net income from 2024 to 2025 looks smaller than it really was. Operating income more than doubled.

    10-K FY2025, income taxes note
  5. 05
    Good

    It buys back stock, and the share count is falling.

    $50.0M repurchased in 2025. A new $100M program started in Dec 2025 with $72.0M left at June 30, 2026. Shares outstanding fell 1.0% in a year.

    Rare for a young fintech. Equity is a small part of pay here (stock pay was $6.5M in 2025), so grants do not swamp the buybacks.

    10-Q Q2 2026, issuer purchases
  6. 06
    Watch

    Marketing spend more than doubled.

    Marketing was $19.4M in Q2 2026, up from $8.8M a year earlier. For 2025 it was $32.2M, from $9.7M in 2024.

    Growth is now being bought more than before. If subscriber gains slow while ad spend stays high, margins will feel it first.

    10-Q Q2 2026, statement of operations
  7. 07
    Watch

    Senators and seven state attorneys general have asked questions.

    The Senate Banking Committee sent information requests to BNPL firms including Sezzle. AGs of CA, CO, CT, IL, MN, NC and WI sent coordinated requests. The CFPB supervises Sezzle directly.

    Requests, not enforcement. But state-level rules for pay-later are the most likely way costs rise for this business.

    10-K FY2025, risk factors
  8. 08
    Neutral

    It is suing Shopify, and the case survived.

    Sezzle filed an antitrust suit against Shopify in June 2025. In May 2026 the court dismissed the tying claim but let the monopolization claims proceed to discovery.

    Sezzle is the plaintiff, so the risk is cost and distraction, not a payout. A win or settlement could open more Shopify checkouts.

    10-Q Q2 2026, legal proceedings
  9. 09
    Good

    Guidance has been raised three times.

    2026 adjusted EPS guidance went from $4.35 (Nov 2025) to $4.70, $5.10 and then $5.25 (Aug 2026). Revenue growth guidance is now 35%.

    Management has been beating its own forecasts. Q3 results come Nov 4, 2026.

    Sezzle Q2 2026 results
  10. 10
    Neutral

    Winding down India and parts of Europe.

    The 10-K says operations in India and certain European countries are being wound down. Staff are in the US and Canada, with contractors mainly in Colombia and Mexico. Remote-first since March 2020.

    Roles are concentrating in North and Latin America. Do not expect openings in India or Europe.

    10-K FY2025
04 · Who gets paid most

Engineering is paid 58% under market. Product, 75% under.

Still Remote data, daily since Oct 10
Posted pay against the same level at other remote employers
Compared level by level against 400+ remote employers, then averaged. Number of posted ranges beside each team.
AI and ML listings, Oct 10 to Oct 31
0 → 0no change
Remote listings, same days
163 → 165+1%

We save every company's roles, pay by team and level, AI share and churn every day, so each month this page can say more. Sparklines use their own scale.

05 · Built for the agentic era?

Can AI agents do business with Sezzle?

We checked the agent payment programs, developer docs and site rules an AI assistant would meet.

Our verdict

Good docs for AI tools. No agent payment rails yet.

Still Remote read
LiveAnnounced, not confirmed liveNot foundPartly
  1. A product it calls Agentic Commerce
    Launched in Canada after Q1 2026 as a closed-end pay-later virtual card. No detail on which agents use it.
    Sezzle Q1 2026 results
    Yes
  2. Its own AI shopping assistant
    In development in June 2026, building toward a "fully agentic experience" that finds the best prices.
    Sezzle release, Jun 3, 2026
    Announced
  3. Google AP2, OpenAI and Stripe checkout, Visa and Mastercard agent programs
    No announcement found tying Sezzle to any of them.
    Searched Oct 31, 2026
    Not found
  4. Developer docs that AI tools can read
    docs.sezzle.com publishes llms.txt (94 links) and a full-text version. The main site has none.
    checked Oct 31, 2026
    Yes
  5. An MCP server or agent toolkit
    A docs MCP server plus agent skills for checkout and virtual cards. It reads the docs only and never calls the Sezzle API.
    checked Oct 31, 2026
    Mixed
  6. Lets AI crawlers read its site
    All bots allowed. Only /stores-redirect and /thank-you are closed.
    checked Oct 31, 2026
    Yes
05 · Inside the company

Where Sezzle puts AI to work.

AI and ML job titles, share of open remote listings
Sezzle
0.0%
Every company we track
6.2%
0 of 165 Sezzle listings on Oct 31. Scale 0% to 10%.
  1. 1
    An AI chatbot handles most support
    Live for all app users in June 2026, resolving 70% of inbound questions without a human, with more channels planned.
    Sezzle release, Jun 3, 2026
  2. 2
    Most new code is written with AI help
    Sezzle says over 70% of new code is written with AI assistance.
    Sezzle release, Jun 3, 2026
  3. 3
    Machine learning in fraud, risk and marketing
    The 10-K says it uses AI and machine learning for fraud prevention, risk management, marketing and customer service.
    10-K FY2025
06 · What the hiring says

More listings than on Sep 7, most of them in engineering.

Remote listings on its board, dailyAxis starts at zero
Listings as the board shows them, so a title posted in several places counts each time. Team counts are open roles, repeated titles once.
51 of 80
roles are engineering
10
legal roles, the next biggest team
8
countries named in its remote roles, led by Colombia
+1
new roles in the last 7 days
06 · From its own channel

What Sezzle puts on its own channel.

Short videos from Sezzle's official YouTube channel, played here. We only use a channel that links legal.sezzle.com and carries the company's name.

  • Pay-in-5™ with Sezzle
    197 thousand views
  • Save With Sezzle
    208 thousand views
  • Pantera Upcycle + Sezzle
    669 views
  • Rising Prices? Sezzle’s Got Your Back
    4 thousand views
  • Sezzle Answers Your Questions: How to Update Your Payment Method. #Sezzle #SezzleIt #buynowpaylater
    2.2 thousand views
  • Sezzle Answers Your Questions: What is Spending Power? #Sezzle #SezzleIt #SpendingPower #shopping
    2.8 thousand views
  • Spent months price hunting… and still overpaid?! 😳 | Sezzle on the Streets
    3.1 thousand views
  • Sezzle Answers Your Questions: What is Sezzle Spend? #sezzle #sezzleit #sezzlespend #BuyNowPayLater
    14 thousand views
From Sezzle on YouTube. These are the company's own marketing, not a look inside.
07 · Scenario builder

Your view of the next year, in a share price.

A way to think, not a forecast, and not investment advice.

A share price is three numbers
$450Mrevenue last year
×
$10.12what investors pay per $1 of it
=
$4.56Bthe whole company
÷ 34Mshares it is split into
= $134.85one share
Growth
How much bigger revenue gets in a year. More revenue to multiply.
Paid per $1 of revenue
The mood dial. High when investors expect fast growth and future profit, low when they doubt it. Sezzle sits at $10.12; the peers' median is $1.64.
Share count
Stock pay and converting notes add shares, so each is a smaller slice. Buybacks do the opposite. Last year Sezzle's share count changed −1%.
The analyst range
7 analysts publish a 12-month target, from $150 to $196. It is where Wall Street sits, not where the stock must go.
Pick a world

Growth and valuation hold, and the share count keeps rising at last year's rate. This lands above the analysts' average of $167.

Last year +66.1%.
For 2026: revenue growth of 35%, adjusted net income of $185.0M, adjusted EPS of $5.25 (Aug 2026). No 2027 guidance yet.
Today $10.12. Affirm $6.51 · Klarna $1.25 · PayPal $1.42 · Block $1.85.
Last year −1%. Buys back stock: $50.0M in 2025, $28.0M in the first half of 2026, $72.0M left on a $100M program.
$
A year from now, in your world
$226
+68% vs $134.85 today
Your grant, one year from now
$167,827

Your $100,000 grant today would be worth $167,827 in 12 months in this world, before taxes and vesting.

$748M revenue × $10.12 = $7.57B ÷ 33M shares
Against the 7 analysts
Today $135
Low $150
Avg $167
High $196
$0Band: low $150 to high $196$249
Revenue if this growth holds
Dotted: last year's pace, +66% a year. Bars start at zero.

A way to think, not a forecast, and not investment advice.

Sezzle Q2 2026 results; 10-Q covers
08 · Where it looks headed

The signals, and which way they push.

  1. Tailwind
    Subscriptions are taking off.

    Active subscribers rose 76% in a year to 854,000, the biggest gain in its history. Purchase frequency rose to 7.2 times.

    Sezzle Q2 2026 resultshigh
  2. Tailwind
    Becoming an everyday money app.

    In 2026 it launched cash advances (SezzleCash), peer-to-peer transfers (Sezzle Send), a mobile phone plan and 3 to 48 month loans.

    Sezzle Q2 2026 results; Jun 3 releasehigh
  3. Tailwind
    Bigger merchants are signing.

    Poshmark, Gymshark, Debenhams, Brookshire's and RockAuto joined in Q2 2026. No single party is 10% of revenue.

    Sezzle Q2 2026 resultsmedium
  4. Headwind
    Pay-later is drawing official questions.

    Senate Banking and seven state AGs sent information requests. One bank, WebBank, originates most of its loans.

    10-K FY2025medium
  5. Headwind
    Growth costs more each quarter.

    Marketing more than doubled and credit loss provisions rose 48% in Q2 2026. Management expects losses of 2.5% to 3.0% of sales this year.

    10-Q Q2 2026; Q2 resultsmedium
09 · Bold predictions

Where Sezzle ends up, if we had to bet.

Our calls, not facts. Each one is tied to something that already happened, so you can judge the reasoning.

  1. 1

    Most Sezzle revenue comes from paying members, not one-off purchase fees.

    Likely 72%Products

    Subscribers grew 76% in a year and new products like cash advances are for Anywhere members only. Every launch in 2026 adds a reason to keep paying monthly.

    Sezzle Q2 2026 results
  2. 2

    AI agents become a major way people pay with Sezzle.

    Long shot 16%AI

    It has a Canadian agent card and agent-ready docs. But it has joined none of the big agent payment protocols, which larger rivals have.

    Sezzle Q1 2026 results; docs
  3. 3

    Several US states regulate pay-later like credit, with new disclosure and fee rules.

    Likely 72%Regulation

    Seven state attorneys general have already sent coordinated requests. The CFPB supervises Sezzle, and a bank partner originates most loans.

    10-K FY2025, risk factors
  4. 4

    The Shopify antitrust case ends in a settlement that opens Shopify checkouts wider to Sezzle.

    Coin flip 50%Competition

    The monopolization claims survived dismissal in May 2026 and are in discovery. Most such cases settle, but Shopify denies the claims.

    10-Q Q2 2026, legal proceedings
  5. 5

    A bank or payments giant buys Sezzle.

    Long shot 16%M&A

    The CEO owns 39.4%, so no deal happens without him. No bid has been reported, and the company is spending its cash on buybacks instead.

    Proxy statement, Oct 9, 2026

Read by the Still Remote research agent on November 1, 2026 from the sources linked on this page. Facts and scenarios only, not investment advice.