Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) market has gained enormous popularity in the last few quarters amid a jump in adoption. Klarna, a Swedish financial technology startup , recently reported its financial results for the first nine months of 2021 and saw a sharp increase in the overall demand for its BNPL services.
Earlier this year, Klarna became one of the most valuable fintech startups in the world after receiving $639 million in a funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2. Klarna, which offers innovative BNPL services to clients, has expanded its services significantly in the UK and the US in the last few months.
In a recent discussion with CNBC, a spokesperson of Klarna said: “Each market entry follows a consistent financial trajectory; as volumes grow, and more customers use Klarna, market knowledge improves and credit risk decreases, making mature markets sustainably profitable.”
According to the details shared by the fintech firm, Klarna has entered 9 new markets since the start of 2020. Additionally, the company has increased its worldwide users to more than 90 million.
BNPL Market
Buy Now, Pay Later is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. Apart from Klarna, other major BNPL players include Afterpay and Affirm. Leading financial companies around the world are planning to enter the BNPL market through acquisitions and the development of new products. One such example is the recent acquisition announcement by Square. The financial firm announced in August 2021 that it is planning to acquire Afterpay in a deal worth $29 billion.
“Afterpay, the pioneering global ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) platform, will accelerate Square’s strategic priorities for its Seller and Cash App ecosystems. Square plans to integrate Afterpay into its existing Seller and Cash App business units, enable even the smallest of merchants to offer BNPL at checkout, give Afterpay consumers the ability to manage their instalment payments directly in the Cash App, and give Cash App customers the ability to discover merchants and BNPL offers directly within the app,” Square mentioned at that time.
