The Swedish agency mentioned in an announcement Tuesday that it has raised $650 million from traders, which additionally embrace Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund (GIC) and funds managed by BlackRock. The corporate mentioned it is now probably the most beneficial non-public monetary expertise enterprise in Europe.
Klarna mentioned it’s going to use the funds to take a position additional into the enterprise and develop its world presence, particularly in the USA, the place greater than 9 million customers have used its providers.
In the USA, Klarna competes with rivals together with Affirm and Afterpay, which is branded Clearpay in Europe. “Purchase now, pay later” providers enchantment particularly to youthful customers, who regularly store on-line and should not have bank cards.
The Klarna app has greater than 12 million month-to-month lively customers worldwide, with 55,000 day by day downloads, in line with the corporate. It has benefited from a surge in e-commerce through the coronavirus pandemic, including about 200 new retailers day by day within the first half of 2020 and promoting items value $22 billion, a 44% enhance on the identical interval final yr.
“Klarna is among the most disruptive and promising fintech firms on the earth, redefining the e-commerce expertise for tens of millions of customers and world retailers, simply as e-commerce development is accelerating worldwide and quickly shifting to cell,” Silver Lake’s co-CEO Egon Durban mentioned in an announcement.
