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While Klarna and Afterpay kept burning cash, Youakim steered Sezzle — a publicly traded BNPL challenger — through the brutal 2022–2024 correction and out the other side profitable, a feat rare enough to earn him the 2025 EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Financial Services.
Charlie Youakim leads Sezzle, the publicly traded buy-now-pay-later company that splits purchases into four interest-free installments and competes with Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm.
Sezzle moved from a Nasdaq-listed growth story through the 2022-2024 market correction into consistent profitability. Youakim was named the 2025 EY Entrepreneur of the Year National Financial Services and FinTech Award winner.
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