The heyday of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) startups has passed. A year ago, Swedish BNPL darling Klarna had a startlingly steep valuation of $45.6 billion after the pandemic e-commerce boom — making it Europe’s most valuable tech company. In 2021, it reported that it had 147 million active customers and had handled $80 billion in online sales that year. But earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that its valuation had plummeted. This week, the company confirmed that it’s now valued at just $6.7 billion — an 85 percent decline from 2021.
