Klarna has rolled out a search and compare tool in the UK and Nordics as the fintech looks to diversify its revenue away from buy-now, pay-later, which is under increasing scrutiny.
(Bloomberg) — Klarna has rolled out a search and compare tool in the UK and Nordics as the fintech looks to diversify its revenue away from buy-now, pay-later, which is under increasing scrutiny.
It follows the product’s launch in the US last month and comes a year after the Swedish firm bought price comparison service PriceRunner for $1 billion, making it Klarna’s largest acquisition to date. The deal was finalized in the first quarter of 2022.
“For Klarna, today’s launch is a major milestone in our evolution from a payment network to a single shopping destination,” Chief Executive Officer Sebastian Siemiatkowski said in a statement.
Klarna is handling about 2 million transactions a day, at roughly the same total value compared to a year ago, as increasingly downbeat consumers switch to cheaper goods, Siemiatkowski said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday.
He also said the “fairly scary” collapse of crypto platform FTX.com could lead to tighter regulation across the finance industry and make it harder for fintech firms to compete against traditional lenders “to the disadvantage of consumers.”
Klarna, the former darling of European fintech, suffered a steep valuation cut earlier this year but Siemiatkowski said in October its “painful” restructuring was largely complete.
The new offering intends to provide retailers with an alternative to Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Amazon.com Inc. and supply Klarna with an additional revenue stream. Klarna’s affiliate marketing business generates 600 million leads a year for its retail partners, according to the company.
(Updates with CEO comments on Bloomberg TV from fourth paragraph.)
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