A period of turbulence continued for BNPL firm Klarna, as a significant slowing of consumer spending led to the firm’s losses increasing.
The report by the company revealed that operating losses elevated to £499m in the six months to June, with it marking four successive years since the Swedish firm last reported profit.
At the heart of the challenging period for Klarna is the slowing of consumer spending, which is seriously hampered by global economics and a cost of living crisis.
Nonetheless, the results came off the back of a positive funding round for Klarna, which CEO and Founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski underlined enables it to seize opportunities in some of the most profitable markets.
In a previous interview with Ian King Live on Sky News, the Klarna exec was calm over what has been a turbulent period for the company.
Siemiatkowski stated: “One has to look at it in the context of our public peers, who have dropped 75 – 90% – PayPal is down 75%, it is on parr in what we have seen in public markets, that being said of all the people I deal with, whether it is customers, merchants, regulators, or even media, investors are the ones that I found the most unpredictable from the perspective.”
When asked whether the funding round was essential at this time,he detailed: “We had a business plan that said we were going to raise this money. Obviously some people will say that it is a tough time for businesses like us and for the fintech sector as such.
“But, I took this company through the recession of 2007 and the media tends to forget that we have been profitable throughout the 14 years of our existence. I see this as a tremendous opportunity. I know a lot of our competitors will struggle, so we wanted to invest money to progress into the US market and some of the opportunities we see.”
