Buy now pay later (BNPL) startup Klarna’s second raise of 2021 has it valued at close to 50 percent above its post-raise valuation in March. It now sits at $45.6 billion. The latest raise brought in another $639 million and was led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2. Existing investors Adit Ventures, Honeycomb Asset Management, and WestCap Group also participated.
In March 2021 Klarna raised $1 billion and was valued at $31 billion. Only seven months earlier it was valued at $10.6 billion following a raise of $650 million. Sequoia Capital, SilverLake, Dragoneer and Ant Group are among Klarna’s earlier backers.
Part of this latest windfall will go to a US expansion, which the company said has already attracted more than 18 million users. Klarna is live with 24 of the top 100 US retailers, so there is still plenty of room for them to grow.
As was recently reported, Klarna is said to be looking at an initial public offering in the US within the next year or two.