Private equity investors swarm global payments company Klarna

The $60 billion private equity firm Silver Lake led a $650 million funding round to accelerate the growth of Klarna, a global payments and shopping service company. The investment, which included capital from a handful of other high-profile investors, helped push Klarna’s valuation to $10.65 billion in becoming the highest-valued private fintech in Europe. Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC participated in the funding round, along with BlackRock and HMI Capital. They join an elite group of investors including Sequoia Capital, Permira and Ant Group in boosting Klarna’s aims to grow globally as it now boasts 9 million U.S. clients. Globally Klarna has 90 million consumers that rely on its direct to consumer app that allows users to shop at any store or brand online with installment payment options. The app has more than 12 million monthly active users worldwide, with 55,000 daily downloads. The app also features the world's first buy now, pay later shopper loyalty program, Vibe, which rewards consumers who pay on time, to encourage responsible spending. Vibe is currently available to consumers in the U.S. and will soon be launched in additional markets. “Klarna is one of the most disruptive and promising fintech companies in the world, redefining the ecommerce experience for millions of consumers and global retailers, just as ecommerce growth is accelerating worldwide and rapidly shifting to mobile,” said Egon Durban, co-CEO and managing partner and Jonathan Durham, managing director, of Silver Lake. Klarna was founded in 2005 in Stockholm. Klarna has more than 200,000 retail partners including H&M, Sephora, Groupon, Vans, The North Face, Timberland and Ralph Lauren. “We are at a true inflection point in both retail and finance,” added Klarna Co-Founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, “The shift to online retail is now truly supercharged and there is a very tangible change in the behavior of consumers who are now actively seeking services which offer convenience, flexibility and control in how they pay and an overall superior shopping experience.”

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