Klarna is a Swedish fintech startup that works with e-commerce retailers and businesses to make online shopping easy and hassle-free. On 21 July 2017, Klarna announced that it had picked up a large investment. This is the third of such investments that the startup has bagged in a span of two weeks. Permira, a late stage tech investor and a private equity company, has acquired over 10 percent stake in the fintech firm. while neither Klarna nor Perma has confirmed the exact amount being invested, both the Financial Times and TechCrunch agree that it is about $250 million.
In 2015, Klarna was valued at $2.25 billion but TechCrunch has found out that the value of the fintech startup has since risen to $2.5 Billion; that is the reason an investment of $250 Million is equal to 10 percent of the company’s value.
According to Klarna’s spokesperson, two previous investors (DST and General Atlantic) have exited the business but Atomico and Sequoia are still investors in the firm.
The recent investment follows a June investment of $225 Million by Brightfolk, an investment company associated with Anders Holch Polvsen. In the same month of June, VISA announced that it was strategically investing in Klarna though it did not disclose the value of its investment. This means that Klarna has received about $500 million worth of investments in less than two months.
The substantial funding comes at a time when Klarna is seeking to expand its business. Currently, its financing and payment technologies serve about 70,000 merchants and 60 million consumers in Europe and the U.S.
While the bulk of Klarna’s business has involved the provision of financing at the point of sale, the company picked up a full banking licence in June. This is expected to enable the company to expand into other financing and payment services which could involve credit card and credit services as hinted out by the entry of VISA.
According to Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the CEO and co-founder of Klarna, the investments mark an important milestone for the company as it continues to offer smooth shopping experience and consumer oriented technology intensive banking services. Sebastian says that he is delighted to have on board a partner like Permira that has strong expertise in fintech and e-commerce with a global footprint. He believes that Permira will be critical in the future strategic development of Klarna.
Klarna has experienced a sustained growth in the last few years. In the last one year alone, it has picked up 17,000 merchant partners. The company also reported a “strong growth” in the first half of this year after a 50 percent increase in transactional volumes in 2016. Unlike some other startups in the e-commerce space, Klarna has been profitable since 2005.