Buy now, pay later service Klarna raises $1 billion at a $31B valuation

Swedish “buy now, pay later” payment company Klarna nearly tripled its valuation to $ 31 billion in less than six months after announcing a new $ 1 billion funding round on Monday. 

The funding round, which made Klarna the most valuable private fintech in Europe, received fourfold demand, and existing investors as well as new investors joined the round. Macy’s, Snoop Dogg, Sequoia Capital, Visa, BlackRock, Ant Group, TCV, and Silver Lake are among the current investors of Klarna. 

The company completed a $ 650 million funding round in September 2020, at a valuation of $ 11 billion.

The company also announced that it will pledge 1% of the amount from the investment to a newly created venture that focuses on key sustainability challenges around the world and will launch on World Earth Day on April 22. 

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According to the information on the website of Klarna, which was established in 2015, the company has 90 million active consumers and 250 thousand member merchants in payments service. 

“At Klarna, we solve problems – that is the heart of what we do for both consumers and retailers,” said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Co-founder and CEO of Klarna. 

 “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want transparent products to help them bank, shop and pay that reflect the way they live their lives, not just outdated traditional models.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.”