They’re clearly a sensitive bunch at Klarna, the Swedish “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) firm. The privately owned company’s value, as measured by the price at which it raises fresh capital, has just crashed by 85% from $45.6bn (£38.3bn) a year ago to $6.7bn today, but management would like you to think a veritable triumph has occurred.
It was a testament to Klarna’s strength, said chief executive Sebastian Siemiatkowski, that $800m of cash arrived from investors this week “during the steepest drop in global stock markets in over 50 years” – a questionable statistic, incidentally, given what happened in 1973-74, 2001-03 or even 2008.
