What is Klarna? Klarna Review, Features

Klarna was founded in 2005 in Stockholm, Sweden, with the goal of making it easier for people to shop online. It is Europe's most valuable private fintech company, providing products and services in the payment, social shopping and personal finance range.

About Klarna

• Klarna is a leading global payment and shopping service, providing smarter, more flexible shopping experiences to 90 million active consumers at more than 250,000 merchants in 17 countries. Klarna delivers a smooth, one-click purchasing experience, allowing consumers to pay when, where and how they prefer, offering direct debits, pay after delivery options and instalment plans.
• Klarna Group was formed when the company acquired SOFORT in 2014. Klarna is backed by investors including Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake, Bestseller Group, Dragoneer, Permira, Visa, Ant Group and Atomico.

Financing History

- In June and July 2017, Klarna received three investments in two months. They were from Brightfolk, a platform run by fashion tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen, credit card payment giant Visa, and private equity investment company Permira. After the third round of financing, media reports said Klarna's overall valuation was as high as $2.5 billion.

-On October 9, 2018, Klarna received another $20 million in financing from fashion retail giant H&M.

-In August 2019, Swedish unicorn fintech company Klarna completed its latest round of massive financing of US$460 million, which it said would be used to enter the US market.

-In September 2020, Swedish payment platform Klarna received a new round of financing of US$650 million, with a post-transaction valuation of US$10.65 billion, becoming the highest-valued (unlisted) fintech startup in Europe and the fourth-highest-valued in the world. This round of financing was led by Silver Lake, with participation from Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and others. Other investors in Klarna include Sequoia Capital, Ant Group, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, etc.