Sweden-based payment technology provider Klarna secured $460m in funding from investors including financial services provider Commonwealth Bank of Australia yesterday.
Investment firm Dragoneer Investment Group led the round, which included pension fund manager Första AP-Fonden, IVP, HMI Capital, Merian Chrysalis Investment Company, IPGL and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. It valued Klarna at $5.5bn post-money.
The company also disclosed that it had raised more than $100m in a separate round that closed in April this year. It was co-led by clothing producer Bestseller and VC firm Sequoia Capital, according to Reuters.
Casa Verde Capital, the VC firm owned by rapper Snoop Dogg, supplied an undisclosed sum for Klarna in January this year at a valuation of $2.5bn, though it is unclear whether the investment formed part of the April round.
Founded in 2005 as Kreditor, Klarna operates a payments platform for online merchants that enables consumers to pay for items immediately, at a later date or in instalments. It secured a full banking licence in Sweden in 2017 and is active in 14 countries.
The company has partnered more than 130,000 merchants and processes 1 million transactions each day, having served more than 60 million consumers to date. It has signed up more than 3,000 merchants in the US and will use the funding to drive an expansion in that market.
Klarna will also enter into an exclusive partnership with Commonwealth Bank of Australia to launch in Australia and New Zealand.
Although Klarna has not disclosed all the details of its early funding, but it has raised at least $935m in equity financing to date, securing $20m from fashion retailer H&M in October 2018 as part of a strategic partnership agreement.
Payment processing firm Visa provided an undisclosed amount for the company in June 2017, and fashion-focused holding company Brightfolk reportedly acquired a stake sized at approximately 10% the same year.
Klarna’s shareholders also include Öresund, Atomico, Northzone, Wellcome Trust, Creandum and Permira. The latter acquired the entire shareholding of early investors DST Global and General Atlantic in July 2017.