Global payment providers Visa and Klarna made an important announcement today at Money 20/20 in Copenhagen. Two companies have reached an agreement for Visa to make an equity investment in Klarna.
This investment is part of Visa’s global strategy to open up the Visa ecosystem and support a broad range of new partners who are helping to redefine and enhance the purchase experience online for millions of consumers globally. In the past few years the company has acquired two other two US-based fintech startups, Square and Stripe — and now it going after European ones. Fair enough, since Europe is expected to see double-digit growth in online sales in the coming years. By 2021, the growth in the number of connected devices and improvements in mobile connectivity will drive online sales to reach 12 percent of the region’s total retail sales. Additionally, online retail sales are expected to grow at an average rate of 12 percent per year over the next five years in Western Europe.
Klarna is one of Europe’s fastest growing online payments companies, serving 60 million consumers and 70,000 retailers. Earlier this month the company has received significant investment from Swedish fashion e-commerce giant Brightfolk AB.
Apparently Visa – Klarna partnership is a natural fit. Both companies understand consumer credit and the value of consumer centricity in developing innovative payment solutions. While Visa conquers European fintech market and targets newer generations of consumers, Klarna gets an opportunity t0 expand its services to a wider range of customers by offering more products powered by well-known and trusted brands.
“Visa is committed to partnering with a new generation of partners and payment providers to bring secure, online commerce to many more consumers in Europe. We look forward to working more closely with Klarna to accomplish this.” – commented Jim McCarthy, executive vice president, innovation and strategic partnerships, Visa Inc.
“Partnering with Visa will give us the opportunity to strengthen our global presence and product portfolio by leveraging our combined assets. We are excited about the possibilities of what we can do together.” – commented Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and co-founder of Klarna.
