Chinese payments giant Ant Financial has acquired a minority interest in Swedish fintech Klarna for an unspecified amount.
The deal comes close on the heels of Klarna posting its first loss ahead of possible IPO.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The Swedish payments company reported a loss of SEK902.3 ($92.8m) for fiscal 2019 after several years of profitability.
Reuters, citing undisclosed sources, reported that the stake amounts to less than 1% and comprises existing and new shares.
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiątkowski commented: “At the heart of this cooperation between Klarna and Alipay is a shared ambition of innovating truly superior shopping experiences and creating destinations of inspiration for consumers across the world.
“We are delighted in this confidence shown in Klarna in defining the future of payments and shopping and are very much looking forward to working together further in the future.”
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataThe acquisition of the minority interest will bolster the strategic collaboration between the two firms.
The buy now, pay later app of the Swedish firm is already part of Alibaba Group’s shopping platform AliExpress. Ant Financial is an affiliate of Alibaba Group.
Klarna hopes that this deal will help in bringing more of its solutions to consumers and merchants within Alibaba’s ecosystem.
Numis acted as exclusive financial adviser to Klarna on this deal.
Klarna is active in 17 core markets with employee numbers soaring by one-third in 2019 to over 2,400.
It currently holds a post money valuation of $5.5bn, tied with Revolut as the most valuable private fintech in Europe.
Klarna’s main growth markets are the US and the UK. The number of active consumers increased by 6x and 2x in the US and UK respectively during 2019.
In the US, the launch of the Klarna app significantly boosted consumer acquisition and transactions. For example, in December over 300,000 unique shopping users were acquired.
Last month, Klarna agreed to acquire Italian payment company Moneymour from its founders and minority stakeholders.
Founded in 2017, Moneymour offers `buy now, pay later’ scheme that allows customers to split purchases in monthly instalments.
