Visa buys stake in fast-growing fintech group Klarna

Visa is taking a stake in Klarna in a sign of the Swedish fintech’s growing presence in online payments.

A week after Klarna became the largest European fintech to receive a banking licence, Visa said it was making a strategic investment through the purchase of a stake of less than 10 per cent as well as offering a future partnership. The price paid by Visa was not revealed.

Klarna has become a big participant in Germany and the Nordics for online payments, allowing its 60m customers to buy goods on the internet quickly and pay only after receiving them. It is looking to make a similar splash in the UK and US as well as use its banking licence to offer customers cards and salary accounts.

Visa said its investment in Klarna — last valued at $2.25bn in 2015 — was “part of a global strategy to open up the Visa ecosystem and support a broad range of new partners”.

“Klarna has demonstrated an expertise in consumer credit and online purchasing and together, we share a vision for how today’s online and mobile commerce experiences can be as simple as they are in the real world,” said Jim McCarthy, Visa’s head of innovation and strategic partnerships.

The deal with Klarna is the first in Europe since Visa completed its €13bn takeover of Visa Europe last year. Visa said it was committed to finding more partnerships in online payments on the continent.

It follows several similar deals in the US where Visa has taken stakes in both Square and Stripe, highly- valued payments start-ups.

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Source: Visa buys stake in fast-growing fintech group Klarna – The Financial Times