Klarna Bank AB, a Sweden-based payments company that became the leader in the BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) global market with a share of over 53 percent, is aiming to raise up to one billion US dollars from new and existing investors in the new investment round, led by Goldman Sachs.
This year the company was appointed with a value of 30 billion US dollars. This is an almost thirty-percent decrease compared to the previous year when the company's worth was estimated as 45.6 billion US dollars. However, this isn’t an unusual case. Many American and European tech companies experienced a similar decrease this year. For example, one of Klarna’s competitors, Affirm Holdings Inc., experienced a 75% value decrease this year, so the estimate went down to 7.2 billion US dollars.
As mentioned in the blog post of the company’s CEO and co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski: “And when we set our business plans for 2022 in the autumn of last year, it was a very different world than the one we are in today. Since then, we have seen a tragic and unnecessary war in Ukraine unfold, a shift in consumer sentiment, a steep increase in inflation, a highly volatile stock market, and a likely recession. All of which have marked the beginning of a very tumultuous year.”
Also, Sebastian announced a layoff round for about ten percent of Klarna’s staff.
