Swedish fintech giant Klarna was doing well before the pandemic, but today, it’s a mega-unicorn: In June 2021, it reached a $45.6 billion valuation after raising $639 million.
Much of this growth was fueled by U.S. consumers, which makes sense, considering that most of us still can’t cover a $1,000 emergency expense. Today, BNPL can be used to facilitate the purchase of a pizza oven — or just a single pepperoni pie.
Growth is good, but like the James Brown song, Klarna is paying the cost to be the boss: The BNPL leader generated $1.375 billion in 2021 revenue, but it had “a $658 million operating loss and a $709 million net loss,” reported Alex Wilhelm in The Exchange.
Full TechCrunch+ article …
