With the company’s founders leading the way, Klarna has raised £90 million to finance the acquisition of Sofort.
Klarna scooped up Sofort in December 2013 in a deal reportedly worth $150 million. The additional capital marks the completion of the acquisition and the formation of the Klarna Group. Also participating in the fundraising were existing investors Atomico, General Atlantic, and Sequoia Capital.
CEO and co-founder of Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski said, “(This) is a vote of confidence in Klarna’s long term vision to become the world’s favorite way to buy. Together with Sofort we are the leading European alternative payment provider.”
Klarna is one of Europe’s biggest players in the mobile payments market. The company’s approach separates “buying from paying” by allowing consumers to do the former with just an e-mail address and post code, and the latter by a variety of different methods, from invoice to credit card to bank transfer.
The results is a frictionless buying experience for the consumer, with lower abandonment rates and easier payment management for the merchant (“one contract, one contact, one payment file”).
A few Klarna Group metrics:
- More than 1,000 employees
- Active in 14 European markets
- Serves 25 million consumers
- Works with 45,000 online merchants
- Has processed more than 140 million transactions
Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Klarna was among 19 Finovate alums to be selected for the 2014 European FinTech 50 awards.
Klarna demoed its technology at FinovateSpring in 2012. See the company in action here.