Swedish startup Klarna has acquired BillPay in a transaction that's expected to strengthen its payments business throughout Europe; the estimated price is approximately 60 million British pounds ($75 million) and Klarna was last valued at $2.25 billion in 2015; both Klarna and BillPay have been closely compared to PayPal; with the new acquisition the majority of Klarna's business will now be focused in Germany; Klarna has been focusing on business in Germany, acquiring Cookies in October 2016 and Sofort in 2013, both German companies; the acquisition of BillPay will help increase cross-border payment transactions; according to Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna, "Germany is one of the largest e-commerce markets in the world, and we are delighted to have strengthened our position here with this acquisition." Source
Europe provides some interesting examples for fintech bank chartering and licensing as companies SoFi and Varo lead the way in the United States; two top companies to watch include Tandem and Klarna; fintech company Tandem recently acquired a bank, Harrods Bank, which will provide it with GBP80 million ($103 million) of capital and a banking license if the transaction is approved; Klarna has also been a fintech banking leader in Europe; the Swedish payments company recently received a banking license and has reported deals with Permira, Visa and Brightfolk. Source
Swedish fintech Klarna Bank has launched a free P2P payments service; the new service is called Wavy and is available for consumers across 31 European markets; the service allows for simplified payment redemption with the receiver able to redeem the funds directly to their bank account. Source
The company reported an increase in profits and sales last year which were helped by growth in the Nordics and Germany; Klarna processed €18bn in transactions last year which was an increase of 42%; the company partnered with Asos, Topshop and JD Sports in the UK to drive further growth; in the US they have partnered with Microsoft. Source
