Klarna confirms $1bn raise with new valuation at $31 billion

Bloomberg reported that Klarna was in the latest round of financing valued at 31 billion dollars. Klarna now confirms that information in a press release.

This means Klarna nearly tripled its value compared to the valuation in the last new share issue that was released last autumn. Klarna is now worth more than all three major Swedish banks Swedbank, Handelsbanken and SEB.

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The Klarna app was consistently ranked among the Top 10 app downloads in the US during 2020.

Klarna also announced that the company will allocate 1 % of the capital raised to a newly created initiative that focuses on sustainability challenges around the world. This project will be formally launched on April 22 on World Earth Day.

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna says: “At Klarna, we solve problems – that is the heart of what we do for both consumers and retailers. Consumers want transparent products to help them bank, shop and pay that reflect the way they live their lives, not just outdated traditional models.”

“Each and every one of us at Klarna will continue to work hard on this, but it is also time for us, with our culture of change, disruption and innovation, to focus on tackling bigger, more complex issues. I believe our industry has a responsibility to help in some way solve global sustainability issues and I hope others will join Klarna in our ambition,” he adds.

The Swedish fintech success Klarna has previously acquired companies such as the price pressure service Woilà and Search Engine Marketing Sweden, which helps e-retailers to advertise more efficiently on Google Shopping.

Now there may soon be more acquisitions from the company according to CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski. In an interview with the Financial Times, he talks about the plans for further acquisitions.

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“There are some really good startups out there that do not have the distribution power, that Klarna has with 90 million users. We believe this will be a time of change for retail and payments, and we want to provide our customers with as much value as possible. So if we see such opportunities, it can be very interesting,” says Siemiatkowski.