Sweden-based payment software provider Klarna secured $639m yesterday in a round led by internet and telecommunications firm SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.
Adit Ventures, Honeycomb Asset Management and WestCap Group filled out the round, which valued the company at about $46bn, according to Reuters.
Founded in 2005 as Kreditor, Klarna runs a payment scheme that enables e-commerce customers to pay a month after their purchase or divide the expense into monthly instalments. It will use the cash for global expansion, having opened a branch in France this week.
The company last received $1bn in a March 2021 round from undisclosed new and returning backers at a $31bn valuation.
Klarna had collected $650m in funding at $10.7bn post-money from Silver Lake, GIC, HMI Capital and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock six months before.
Media company Bonnier, Merian Chrysalis, TCV and Northzone purchased a stake in Klarna through a secondary transaction in the same month.
E-commerce group Alibaba’s Ant Group affiliate provided an undisclosed sum in March 2020, following $200m in funding in January 2020 from financial services firm Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).
CBA had supplied $100m towards Klarna’s $460m round in 2019. Dragoneer Investment Group led the round, investing alongside apparel brand Bestseller, Sequoia Capital, Första AP-Fonden, IVP, HMI Capital, Merian Chrysalis, IPGL and BlackRock-run funds and accounts.
Klarna closed a round of undisclosed size earlier in the same year from Casa Verde Capital, which came in the wake of a $20m round featuring clothing retailer H&M in 2018. Payment service group Visa provided an undisclosed sum the year before.
Before that, the company had raised more than $345m from shareholders such as Brightfolk, Öresund, Atomico, Northzone, Wellcome Trust, Creandum and Permira.
