Report: Klarna rating may drop by 66 percent

Wrote a remarkable success story, he now faces a slew of challenges: Klarna boss Sebastian Simiatkowski. – Copyright: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Swedish flagship fintech Klarna is currently seeking to raise fresh capital in the final financing round at a valuation of only a third of the company’s value. Wall Street Journal report. Recently, the “Buy Now Pay Later” provider received a good 600 million euros from investors – with a valuation of about 44 billion euros. According to the magazine, Klarna’s market cap could now drop to around €14 billion. The fintech wants to raise at least half a billion euros.

This would have made things worse had there been reports a few weeks ago that Klarna was looking to raise a billion euros with a valuation of 28.5 billion euros. Shortly thereafter, in the context of the unfavorable market environment, the company announced that it would lay off ten percent of its global workforce – which corresponds to approximately 700 people. At the same time, it became known that in the first three months of the year the loss before tax had tripled to 240 million euros.

Co-founder Sebastian Simiatkowski said the “vast majority” are not impressed by the measures, but “some have been informed that we cannot offer them a role in the new organisation”. “When we laid out our business plans for 2022 last fall, it was very different from the world we are in today,” Simiatkowski said. “Since then we have seen a tragic and unnecessary war in Ukraine, changes in consumer sentiment, increased inflation, a highly volatile stock market and a potential recession.