European e-commerce payments provider Klarna just raised a huge, pre-IPO round of $155 million. The round was led by General Atlantic and Yuri Milner’s DST Global. Sequoia Capital led its last $9 million round in May, 2010. (Update: Sequoia did not invest in this round). At that time, Sequoia partner Michael Moritz (he of Google, PayPal, and Yahoo fame) joined the board.
The new round almost certainly puts Klarna’s valuation within spitting distance of Europe’s billion-dollar tech club.
Klarna is based in Stockholm and was founded in 2005 by three economics students, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Niklas Adalberth and Victor Jacobsson. It already has 600 employees and clears $2.5 billion worth of payments from 6 million consumers across 14,000 merchants.
The company operates primarily in Europe, where it takes some of the risk out of e-commerce by extending credit to shoppers and allows them to pay after they receive the goods. Merchants are paid upon order. (In Europe, they call this invoicing).
The key to Klarna’s business and profits is to assess and minimize credit risk on the fly. The company acquired Analyzed, an Israeli fraud prevention firm, last May to help with risk assessment. The new capital could be used for more M&A, hiring, as well as further geographic expansion.
”Klarna has become the most elegant, checkout usher for commerce websites all over Europe. Shoppers and merchants know that Klarna makes life – and payments – easier than ever. And what greases the wheels of e-commerce in Europe will make for a wonderful and important company.”. Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital 2011. Klarna is one of Europe’s leading providers of payment solutions for e-commerce. Klarna separates buying from paying by allowing buyers to pay for ordered goods after receiving them,...
Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital “one of the highest-caliber venture firms” and noted that it is “one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture-capital firms”. It invests between $100,000 and $1 million in seed stage, between $1 million and $10 million in early stage, and between $10 million and $100 million in growth stage. The firm has offices in the U.S., China, India and...
We are a leading provider of technology solutions to the world’s top financial institutions, utilities, telcos and communications. We serve over 400 clients in some 45 countries, with five regional operational hubs and 12 offices. We service clients on every continent and provide them with 24/7 coverage. Clients from single-site installations to some of the largest global institutions trust DST Global Solutions to help them run their businesses more effectively.
General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for growth companies. They combine a collaborative global approach, sector-specific expertise, and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great management and build exceptional businesses worldwide. As a growth investor for over three decades, GA consistently generates long-term, superior returns by investing in and working with strong management to build outstanding companies. The unique evergreen capital structures affords us the flexibility to function...
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