Klarna, which recently hit 18 million monthly users and whose operating income rose 40% in 2020, has recently announced a fresh injection of $1 billion in an equity funding round. This cool pile of cash is expected to accelerate international expansion and further capture global retail growth.
This 4x oversubscribed round included a combo of new and existing investors, and closed at a valuation of (are you sitting down?) $31 billion. This thus makes Klarna the highest-valued private fintech company in Europe, and the second-highest worldwide, rivaled only by Stripe.
And with so much money now in the coffers, Klarna is taking 1% of this newly raised capital and putting it towards a newly created initiative that focuses on key sustainability challenges around the world. The initiative will be formally launched April 22 on World Earth Day.
“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want transparent products to help them bank, shop and pay that reflect the way they live their lives, not just outdated traditional models.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 everyone 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.”
Would you like to write the first comment?
Login to post comments