IKEA

IKEA began as a mail-order furniture business and evolved into the world's largest furniture retailer, operating through a complex franchisor/franchisee structure (Inter IKEA Group owns the concept; Ingka Group operates ~390 stores). Over the last decade, IKEA has actively built out embedded financial services — including co-branded credit cards with Ikano Bank, BNPL via Afterpay and B2B BNPL via Slope, and household insurance underwritten by iptiQ (Swiss Re) — layering fintech partnerships on top of its retail core. The 2024 global Adyen partnership represents a strategic shift toward a unified payment and loyalty data stack, consolidating fragmented regional payment rails onto a single acquirer.