Adyen raised its 2026 outlook to 21%–23% after first-half net revenue rose 21% to €1.30 billion, a step up from its earlier 20% to 22% target. The change matters for merchants using its payments system and for investors tracking whether the company can keep lifting growth while spending on technology.
Gianluca Lo Nostro reported the revision on Aug 13. Adyen’s newer range implies management now expects faster net revenue growth than it did before the half-year results, after the company processed more payments through its platform for large clients including Spotify and Microsoft.
Adyen and 21% revenue growth
21% was the year-on-year increase in net revenue for the six months to June, when Adyen reached €1.30 billion. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had expected 20.69% growth on a constant-currency basis to €1.29 billion, so the company came in slightly ahead on both the growth rate and the euro amount.
€1.30 billion also shows the scale of the business behind the revised outlook. For merchants, that usually means more volume moving through the same payments stack; for shareholders, it signals that the company’s growth path is still being driven by transaction activity rather than just price changes.
Visible Alpha estimates on earnings
€641.5 million was the half-year adjusted core earnings figure, below the €647.2 million analysts expected. The gap was small, but it shows the cost side did not move in lockstep with revenue: higher acquisition-related costs and investment in payments technology took a slice out of earnings even as the top line improved.
€647.2 million had been the benchmark, so Adyen missed by €5.7 million. That shortfall leaves the market with a mixed read: the company is growing faster than expected, but each extra euro of revenue is still carrying enough cost pressure to trim profitability at the operating level.
Spotify, Microsoft and North America
Spotify and Microsoft are among the clients using Adyen’s payments infrastructure, and the company also competes with PayPal and Stripe in North America. That mix points to a business tied to large-volume processing and to a competitive market where growth has to be won twice, once from customer activity and again from technology performance.
21%–23% is now the guidepost for 2026, and the comparison with the earlier 20% to 22% range shows management is leaning more confidently into the next phase of expansion. How much extra growth will come from more client payments versus the technology investments behind them is still the open part of the story.
