On the heels of Klarna’s move to become the largest European fintech to acquire its banking license, the Swedish payments Unicorn announced a strategic partnership with Visa. This strategic partnership comes from Visa’s newly acquired stake in Klarna – the company was last valued at $2.25bn in 2015.
Klarna has approximately 60 million end customers and more than 70,000 merchants. Designed to give shoppers flexible payments options, the Klarna platform processes around 650,000 purchases per day.
While the price that Visa paid for its “strategic” stake was not disclosed, Klarna confirmed that “Visa’s planned investment is part of a global strategy to open up the Visa ecosystem and support a broad range of new partners who are helping to redefine and enhance the purchase experience for millions of consumers globally.”
Jim McCarthy, EVP, innovation and strategic partnerships, Visa, noted: “Klarna has demonstrated an expertise in consumer credit and online purchasing and together, we share a vision for how today’s online and mobile commerce experiences can be as simple as they are in the real world.”
It’s clear that Visa is not sitting back and letting up-and-coming payments firms take its place as king of the hill. Rather, taking an “if you can’t beat them join them” approach with disruptors.
“Provenir has delivered a solution that increases our agility and responsiveness to clients. The implementation of Provenir’s software will contribute towards Klarna’s global market goals.”
Brian Billingsley, CEO, North America, Klarna