Klivvr’s Nils Bachtler On Humanizing Financial Wellness

“We’re not changing course. We’re expanding our impact.”

With this statement, Nils Bachtler, CEO of Klivvr—the Egypt-founded fintech startup launched in 2021—captures the new brand identity the company revealed in May 2025. As Bachtler tells it, this rebranding wasn’t about abandoning Klivvr’s core as a payment solution— instead, it marks a deeper alignment with the company’s long-standing mission to humanize money and broaden access to financial tools.

Co-founded by Onsi Sawiris, Nils Bachtler, Bassem Youssef, and Omar Sherif, Klivvr began as a digital payments platform aimed at simplifying how people manage their money. But as the company’s understanding of users’ needs evolved, so did its ambition.

“Klivvr was never just about payments,” Bachtler emphasizes. “We began by simplifying access to money, but we’ve always believed that financial tools should do more than process transactions. This evolution into a platform for financial wellness isn’t a pivot; it’s a progression. The rebrand reflects an anchoring of our original mission: to make money more human, more accessible, and more meaningful.”

It is as part of this evolution that Klivvr unveiled a full brand refresh, leaning into a human-first identity, one that seeks to make financial services feel less overwhelming, and more emotionally grounded. As such, Bachtler pointed out that the company approached its rebrand as a collaborative evolution shaped by the people who use Klivvr regularly. “We’re evolving with intention, not walking away from what made us trusted in the first place,” he explains. “Our core users weren’t just informed. They were part of the process. Their behaviors, feedback, and aspirations shaped this new chapter. We didn’t rebrand to appear different. We rebranded to be more true to what we’ve always stood for.” 

According to Bachtler, this transformation places user well-being and emotional intelligence at the center of the financial experience. But the company is also clear that trust and authority must remain non-negotiable in this space.

“For us, trust is earned not just through systems and security, but through understanding,” Bachtler explains. “We believe emotion and authority are not mutually exclusive— in fact, they reinforce each other. When users feel seen and understood, they trust more deeply. That’s why we back every human-centered experience with rigorous research, robust infrastructure, and regulatory compliance. Our tone is bolder, but our foundation is as solid as ever, and that boldness is what enables us to build a human-centric brand rooted in credibility and lasting trust.” 

This balance of emotion and authority required more than just surface-level change, and Bachtler knew that for the transformation to resonate, it had to be grounded in authenticity. “We had to look inward first,” Bachtler says. “It wasn’t just about a new logo or language. It was about reflecting on how we think, build, and serve. We stand for financial wellness and that means speaking directly with users and creating space for conversation in a traditionally rigid category. The transformation feels authentic because it comes from the core of Klivvr’s DNA. It started from within; we do not think ‘how much,’ we think ‘how well.’” 

This road towards wellness is now guiding the development of new features like Klivvr Credit—its buy now, pay later (BNPL) service—as well as family financial plans, both of which require the right guardrails to resonate with users.

But from Bachtler ‘s perspective, both of these services are natural extensions of Klivvr’s core vision. “Klivvr credit and family plans aren’t new directions,” Bachtler says. “They are new dimensions of our purpose. The BNPL service at Klivvr is designed with responsibility in mind: competitive interest rates, flexible tenors, and transparent limits. It’s not about encouraging overspending. It’s about giving people better options to manage their cash flow without stress, and boost their financial wellbeing.”

The same approach applies to Klivvr’s family-focused services, which reflect the company’s aim to offer flexible and user-centered financial solutions. “Family plans follow the same principle, offering shared access with individual control,” Bachtler says. “These services align with our belief that financial wellness should be inclusive, adaptable, and smart. Every new product is filtered through that lens.”

With Klivvr having thus successfully unveiled its new identity, Bachtler has this piece of advice for other entrepreneurs considering similar exercises for their startups. “Stay rooted in your purpose,” he says. “If your evolution is aligned with the value you’ve always delivered, your audience will not only stay, they’ll believe in it more than ever.”

Pictured in the lead image is Nils Bachtler, CEO of Klivvr. Courtesy of Klivvr. 

This article first appeared in the July 2025 issue of Inc. Arabia magazine. To read the full issue online, click here.