Klarna, one of the most valuable financial technology firms, recently published its results for 2021. During the reported period, the company’s net operating income jumped by 38% to $1.6 billion.
The fintech company saw a massive increase in active clients. The Klarna ecosystem now has almost 147 million active consumers with more than 400,000 global retailers. In terms of gross merchandise volume, the figure reached a record level of $80 billion in the reported period.
As far as volume is concerned, the United States became the fastest-growing key market for Klarna. Moreover, the country generated the second-largest revenue for the fintech firm. Klarna has collaborated with 30 of the top 100 retail brands in the United States.
“We are now serving more than 100m active customers across the world, and our free short-term credit products have become an expression: BNPL. I am pleased to say that 99% of our lending globally is repaid. But, we have also continued to grow our Pay Now immediate settlement option that today represents 40% of our total transaction volume. We have also massively accelerated our global expansion with the addition of 10 new markets since the start of 2020,” Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the CEO and Co-Founder of Klarna, commented.
Klarna’s valuation soared last year after the company raised $639 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
Challenges
Despite decent growth in active customers and net operating income, Klarna’s losses expanded in 2021. While the company witnessed a rise in demand for BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) services, its financial challenges have increased as well.
“With our focus on creating products which consumers love powered by effective underwriting, our credit loss rates have reduced by over 30% since 2019. This is a major achievement, most importantly since behind that numerical reduction is the lives of tens of thousands of consumers where we have avoided adding to an unhealthy debt burden,” Siemiatkowski added.
