On the back of signing multiple retail partnerships and partly due to the coronavirus, PayTech giant Klarna has announced that it has reached a record 7.85 million US customers.
The FinTech titan has seen its number of US retail partners grow by 163% year over year as of May 2020. More than 4,200 US retailers have now been added to the company’s global base of more than 200,000 retailers.
Household names such as H&M, Sephora, Timberland, The North Face, Shein, Fender, Anine Bing, FORWARD, and ModCloth are among the companies that have recently launched partnerships with Klarna to offer their customers more options for their shopping.
Over one million customers actively use Klarna’s app every month in the US. It has been downloaded more than 4.4 million times.
The coronavirus crisis has also played a role in Klarna’s success as it has forced more retailers to embrace digital solutions.
“Given the current situation, retailers are sharply focused on leveraging the key channel they have available-online,” said David Sykes, head of US at Klarna. “At the same time, more shoppers than ever before are turning to e-commerce for a wide range of product categories, and they are looking to pay for things in a smarter way that lets them manage their finances without having to use credit options that come with interest, fees and revolving debt. At Klarna, we’re working closely with retailers and supporting them in attracting new customers and retaining them as retail starts to rebound.”
Klarna said that it has monitored US consumer behaviours through the crisis and shared key trends, empowering its partners to stock up in time for the rising demand. In the early days of the outbreak, that meant food and groceries. Later, it meant products that made staying at home more bearable, such as stocking up on video games.
Achieving this latest milestone is not the only sign that things could be going well for Klarna. The news comes after it was revealed that Klarna had acquired the UK e-commerce company Nuji in May. That deal was on top of a deal signed in March that was Klarna launch a joint payment solution together with Wirecard. In the same month it was revealed that Ant Financial had bought a minority stake in the Swedish FinTech unicorn. That’s on top of it raising a $460m round last summer that pushed its valuation past the $5.5bn mark, which was later followed by a $200m capital injection from Commonwealth Bank as Klarna grew its reach into Australia.
Klarna is not the only FinTech company to have been able to leverage the global pandemic. For instance, InsurTech companies could be able to come out on top as the crisis has laid bare the limitations of insurers’ old legacy systems.
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