Klarna to announce $800m fundraising, but valuation is lower than two years ago

BNPL giant Klarna is expected to announce soon that The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is to become a shareholder. It’s to unveil a new $800m fundraising, a media report claims.

Sky News said the fundraising will value the firm at around $6 billion, despite the business having a valuation of more than $45 billion just two years ago. 

This reflects less confidence by investors in fast-growing technology-based businesses since the pandemic and also the likelihood of greater regulatory scrutiny of the BNPL sector.

The company, which is based in Sweden, could announce the new money as early as this week, with a report saying that existing investors, such as Sequoia Capital and Silver Lake, and other new backers have taken part in the fundraising round.

SoftBank's Vision Fund is also an existing investor in the company, although it's unclear whether it's taking part in the new round. 

Sky added that the Abu Dhabi state investment fund Mubadala had also been in talks with Klarna in recent weeks about taking part in the capital-raising, and that the $800 million it's believed to have raised is larger than had been expected.

Neither Klarna nor CPPIB have commented on the development yet.