Klarna valued at $5.5bn in funding round for US expansion
By Duncan Ferris
Date: Tuesday 06 Aug 2019
(Sharecast News) - Klarna said on Tuesday it had raised $460m in a funding round that valued the Swedish online payments firm at $5.5bn ahead of a potential stock market flotation.
The funding, which makes the company the largest private fintech start-up in Europe, came from investors including Silicon Valley venture capital company Dragoneer, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, asset management giant BlackRock.
Klarna said the newly raised funds will help to support its rapid rise in the US market, where it is currently growing at an annual rate of 6.0m new consumers, after having recently launched a shopping app that allows users to shop with Klarna at any online store that has been received positively.
July saw a record number of new merchants sign with Klarna in the US, with major brands such as H&M, Abercrombie & Fitch and Boohoo Group set to go live with the alternative payments platform in the near future.
The company said its growing footprint includes over 60.0m consumers, 130,000 merchant partners, 1.0m transactions per day and is in sight of the $1.0bn in annual revenue mark.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and chief executive of Klarna, said: "This is a decisive time in the history of retail banking. Finally, transparency, technology and creativity will serve the consumer, and there will be no more room for unimaginative products, non-transparent terms of use or lack of genuine care of ones customers. We, all 2500 of us at Klarna, are humbled and honoured, and now also further empowered, to play a role in this improvement of an industry for the benefit of the consumer, worldwide and in the US in particular."
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