Klarna Seeks Additional $1 Billion In Funding At $31 Billion Valuation

Klarna is expected to announce new funding in the coming days that will value the company at $31 billion, Bloomberg reported. The amount is around three times more than what the company was valued at after its last round in September.

The new fundraise will be around $800 million to $1 billion, according to unnamed spokespeople Bloomberg cited.

Existing investors are part of the round ahead of a potential public listing in 2022. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said there is a possibility the company could go public, although he never clarified when that might happen, Bloomberg reported.

With the new funding, Klarna is likely to remain Europe’s most valuable startup after payments business Checkout.com was valued at $15 billion.

In September, Klarna brought in $650 million in equity funding from investors led by Silver Lake, which valued it at $10.65 billion.

Klarna has found success as an alternative to traditional credit cards, as well as companies like PayPal that have become well-entrenched, with its buy now pay later (BNPL) service particularly well-received, Bloomberg reported. With BNPL, Klarna has found more popularity in the U.S. especially.

The company has also found support in that the economy has largely shifted toward eCommerce and digital payments because of the pandemic, according to Bloomberg.

However, BNPL services, including Klarna, are increasingly facing scrutiny over their ability to let customers spend more than they can afford.

Klarna has argued that the fixes for regulations of the BNPL sector need time, especially as the U.K. government closes in. Klarna said it doesn’t currently have the internal processes or infrastructure in order to make the fixes necessary for it to share data.

Klarna had been facing questions from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which said it was an urgent matter that the BNPL space fall under normal regulations.