Klarna has recently been crowned Europe’s largest privately owned FinTech after being valued at $5.5bn following an injection of $460m from investors.

Klarna was founded in 2005 in Stockholm, Sweden with the aim of making it easier for people to shop online. Their mission is to make paying as simple, safe and above all, smooth as possible.

Klarna is now one of Europe’s largest banks and is providing payment solutions for 60 million consumers across 130,000 merchants in 14 countries. The FinTech giant offers direct payments, pay after delivery options and instalment plans in a smooth one-click purchase experience that lets consumers pay when and how they prefer to.

 

The FinTech firm’s transparent service for retail customers is also reflected in their name, as translated from Swedish into English ‘klarna’ means ‘clear’

 

Klarna acquired a banking license from Finansinspektionen, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority in 2017.


Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO & Co-Founder at Klarna

Siemiatkowski, 38 years of age, saw the opportunity of open banking rules brought in across the European Union to provide the “prerequisites for massive disruption” and to “empower all European consumers with the ownership of their financial and personal data.” He states “We also see that consumers are willing to switch, it is a lot easier to switch, the services are overall better and new players are entering the market, increasing the competition even further.
Sources: klarna.com, www.eu-startups.com

To find out more about firms that are digitally disrupting, watch our Disrupt & Advance webinar series on our YouTube channel here.

 

Contact Mike Richardson ACIM or Joseph Lee for more information on FinTech fireworks.