Klarna IPO: To Be or Not to Be?

There has been lots of speculation around a potential initial public offering (IPO) from Klarna, which according to TechCrunch is the highest valued private fintech in Europe. The Swedish buy now pay later (BNPL) company is live in over 20 countries, and in May 2021 reported 90 million global active users, and 2 million transactions a day.

So will Klarna IPO? We don’t know. But what we can tell you is that based on our web traffic alternative data the company’s online performance is looking robust.

Key Takeaways

• The number of websites globally with BNPL solutions installed is growing
• Monthly visits to BNPL solution websites are also on the rise
• Monthly unique visitors (MUVs) to Klarna’s merchant login page is seeing strong growth
• Sweden accounts for most of the traffic to Klarna’s merchant login page, but most visitors are returning users, not new

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The BNPL market

Klarna operates in an expanding market, signaling high growth potential. This is a great signal ahead of a potential Klarna IPO.

The number of websites globally with either Klarna or Afterpay installed, is increasing. In 2Q21 this growth represented 16.8% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), and 65.5% year-over-year (YoY).

This booming market is further supported by the improving reach of BNPL solutions, signaled by an upward traffic trend to both klarna.com and afterpay.com, globally.

Accelerating merchant user growth

Merchants are an important part of Klarna’s business model, with revenue coming from an initial setup fee, monthly fee, and a commission fee on transactions.

The number of merchants using Klarna is on the rise, indicated by an increasing number of monthly unique visitors (MUVs) to Klarna’s merchant login page, portal.klarna.com. We also note a particularly significant uptick in 2Q21.

Early adoption from Swedish merchants

Leading the adoption of Klarna by merchants is Sweden, with the largest share of traffic (25%) to the merchant login page coming from its native country.

Looking at new vs returning visitors to Klarna’s merchant login page in Sweden, most are returning users of Klarna. Following the early adoption in the region, the company now needs to focus its efforts on other markets in order to continue its growth trajectory.

Klarna’s growth story

So as we have seen, the BNPL market is growing, and Klarna’s merchant business is capitalizing on that.

What about Klarna’s efforts to improve its merchant footprint outside of Sweden? And what does Klarna’s consumer business look like?

Read the full analysis for the answers and more