Klarna, the Sweden-based digital payment technology provider backed by corporate investors Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Bestseller Group, Visa and Ant Group, secured $650m today at a $10.65bn valuation.
Private equity firm Silver Lake led the round, which included Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, investment management firm HMI Capital and funds and accounts managed by asset management firm BlackRock.
The equity funding was provided alongside secondary share purchases by media group Bonnier, Merian Chrysalis, TCV and Northzone. The company did not disclose who sold shares but did not include retailer H&M, an earlier backer, among its investors in the announcement.
Founded in 2005 as Kreditor, Klarna has built a mobile app that enables users to pay for goods online through instalment payments. It will put the funding into expanding its e-commerce service. Numis was financial adviser and placement agent for the latest round.
Financial services provider Ant Group invested an undisclosed amount in Klarna in March this year through a strategic partnership agreement, two months after it received $200m from financial services firm CBA.
The company had completed a $460m round led by Dragoneer Investment Group in August 2019 that included $100m from CBA and additional backing from fashion brand Bestseller, valuing it at $5.5bn.
Sequoia Capital, Första AP-Fonden, IVP, HMI Capital, Merian Chrysalis and IPGL also participated in the round together with funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. Klarna had raised an undisclosed amount from Casa Verde Capital seven months earlier at a $2.5bn valuation.
Payment services firm Visa invested an undisclosed amount in Klarna in 2017 while H&M supplied $20m for the company in late 2018. Brightfolk, Öresund, Atomico, Northzone, Wellcome Trust, Creandum and Permira are also among its earlier backers.
