Klarna Reportedly Looks To Raise Money At Much Lower Valuation

Klarna is in talks to raise money at a valuation of around $15 billion—significantly less than the $45.6 billion valuation the buy now, pay later giant achieved after its most recent funding round in 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

The $15 billion valuation would be half of the $30 billion valuation Klarna was seeking just last month, WSJ reported. At its most recent $45.6 billion valuation, Klarna is the sixth-highest valued unicorn in the world, according to The Crunchbase Unicorn Board.

Search less. Close more.

Grow your revenue with all-in-one prospecting solutions powered by the leader in private-company data.

Start Your Search

The news shows how investors have soured on tech companies, particularly fintech companies, amid the market downturn. The volatility in the public markets has hammered tech stocks especially hard, and private companies are now starting to feel the effects.

Venture funding in general this year is down as investors wait out the turmoil in the public markets. Fundraising is harder than it was last year, and now it looks like “downrounds”—or raising money at a lower valuation than a previous round—may be back, at least for some late-stage companies.

Klarna, along with other fintech companies, have been adversely affected by the market downturn. The company, which is based in Sweden, reportedly laid off 10 percent of its staff last month. It’s not alone: Fintech is one of the tech sectors that has seen the most companies go through layoffs, according to a Crunchbase News analysis, with others in the space including Bolt and PayPal also cutting jobs.

All told, more than 21,000 employees of U.S.-based tech companies have been laid off so far this year, according to a Crunchbase News tally.

Klarna most recently raised $639 million in a funding round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund in June 2021. The company has raised around $3.7 billion in total funding, according to Crunchbase data.