Klarna launches its first credit product with new U.S. partnerships

The online financing giant Klarna is continuing its rollout in the U.S. with a host of new partnerships and a new product so online shoppers in the U.S. and Europe  can actually take out loans from the company.

It’s the next step for the Stockholm-based business as it continues on the road toward becoming a global financial player.

Klarna already provides “try before you buy” services that allow shoppers to pay after delivery (rather than paying upfront with a card or bank account), but this is actually the first time that the company can extend a line of credit online.

“What we’ve had live in the U.S. so far is the checkout solution,” said a Klarna spokesman.

Now Bigcommerce, Shopify, Magento, Demandware, OpenCart, and Cybersource (that together account for over thousands of online merchants) will be offering credit lines through Klarna.

For the European fintech unicorn (currently valued at $2.25 billion and already profitable), it’s a big deal.

But, it’s merely the opening salvo of what will be a larger push into the U.S. market. The company already has a banking license in Europe and is currently working with WebBank on lending in the U.S., however it’s also considering making a bigger splash in the States by buying its own bank.

With the partnerships that Klarna’s already lined up, the company can lend to folks in 18 European countries and the U.S. Those stats aren’t a big deal for shoppers, but it makes life easier for online stores, the spokesman said.

This stuff is pretty technical, so for the more visually inclined check out the video below to get a sense of what exactly Klarna’s up to.