ICYMI: Klarna piles on losses as ‘buy now, pay later’ demand grows

Klarna, the $46B Swedish company whose toolset allows retailers to offer ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) capabilities, reported a $344M loss from January to September.

Why should we care?
Klarna’s losses – which amounted to a four-fold increase compared to the same period one year ago – were the results of increasing costs the company incurred as demand for BNPL increased. According to the company, “general administrative expenses” – the source of the bulk of the losses – exceeded $1B. Klarna is aggressively expanding into new markets, including the U.S. and Britain. It has captured approximately 18% of the U.S. BNPL market share, trailing Affirm and Afterpay, which made up 36% and 21% of the U.S. BNPL market, respectively. The BNPL sector has spurred a flurry of recent deals and partnerships, including Square’s $29B acquisition of Afterpay, Affirm’s tie-ups with Apple and Amazon, and Klarna’s recent move to offer BNPL services through Stripe. Meanwhile, BNPL firm Sezzle is working with Discover Financial Services, Ally Financial, and card issuer Alliance Data Systems in an effort to enhance its reach. “Credit cards are broken for a lot of people – they don’t like the product – and with our app we’ve created a more consumer-friendly way to finance all types of purchases that we plan to significantly expand through more traditional banking partners,” Paul Paradis, Sezzle’s president, said in an interview.