(Bloomberg) -- Klarna Group Plc almost broke even in the first nine months of the year as the European buy now, pay later fintech continues to ready itself for an initial public offering.
The Stockholm-based fintech said Monday its pretax loss shrank to 2 million kronor ($180,000) in the three quarters through September, compared to 1.77 billion kronor in the same period a year ago. Total revenue rose 23% to 20.3 billion kronor.
Earlier this month, Klarna confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO. The number of shares it will offer and the price range have not yet been determined.
Still, the company has seen its valuation boosted in recent months with analysts pegging it at about $14.6 billion in recent weeks. That’s an improvement from the $6.7 billion price tag it garnered in its last fundraising in 2022, but it’s all a far cry from the $45.6 billion price tag Klarna got in 2021 during the height of the fintech boom.
Partner Boosts
The company has refocused ahead of the planned IPO, shedding businesses, focusing on payment partners, and investing in artificial intelligence. In recent months, Klarna agreed to divest its Checkout payments business for about $520 million while it also snapped up Laybuy, a provider of buy-now, pay-later services in New Zealand.
In the third quarter, the firm reported net income of 216 million kronor, up 57% on a year ago and its second profitable quarter in a row using this measurement.
“We’re back in familiar territory: profit and growth, just like the old days,” Sebastian Siemiatkowski, chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Klarna last week announced it will offer buy-now, pay-later credit to US shoppers using Google Pay, tying it up with another tech giant a month after its partnership with Apple Inc. The Swedish firm has also struck deals with Dutch payments giant Adyen, Xero and Worldpay in recent weeks, as it looks for growth via mainstream payment processors.
Klarna has 85 million customers around the world and 600,000 retail partners. Total credit losses have increased, reaching 0.46% of gross merchandise value in the nine-month period, up from 0.37% a year ago.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
