Klarna in talks to raise fresh funds at roughly $6 billion valuation -source
By Anirban Sen
(Reuters) -Swedish funds agency Klarna Financial institution AB is nearing a deal to lift recent capital at a valuation of about $6 billion from present buyers led by Sequoia Capital, based on an individual conversant in the matter.
The financing spherical is but to be finalized, but when efficiently accomplished would signify a surprising decline within the valuation of a as soon as high-flying, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) enterprise that at one level was Europe’s most respected startup.
In an emailed assertion Klarna stated, “As at all times, we don’t touch upon fundraising nor valuation hypothesis.”
Final 12 months, Klarna raised greater than $600 million from a gaggle of buyers led by SoftBank’s Imaginative and prescient Fund II in a funding spherical that bestowed it a valuation of $46 billion — greater than a number of of the area’s main banks.
Klarna’s present fundraising woes come amid a pointy drop-off in investor curiosity for fast-growing tech ventures which have but to show a revenue and are burning tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in money.
Valuations have tumbled, and several other main tech shares have been battered in current months. Main BNPL gamers and Klarna opponents like Affirm Holdings Inc have shed greater than 80% of their worth this 12 months alone.
The Wall Road Journal reported Klarna’s newest fundraising talks earlier on Friday.
In Could, Klarna Chief Government Sebastian Siemiatkowski informed Reuters in an interview that the agency was in talks with buyers to lift extra money and had no plans to go public this 12 months.
Klarna, one of many world’s most high-profile tech startups, was extensively anticipated to go public this 12 months, however the marketplace for preliminary public choices has collapsed dramatically after a record-breaking 2021 because of market volatility following Russian’s invasion of Ukraine and a broader sell-off in tech shares.
(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru, Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Anirban Sen in New York; Enhancing by Shailesh Kuber and Leslie Adler)
