Klarna Sets Its Sights On Ramping Up US Growth

One of Europe’s highest valued startups is expecting to pull in big revenues this year as it builds up its move into the U.S. market, Reuters reported Wednesday (Feb. 24).

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and cofounder of Swedish payments company Klarna, told Reuters that the company expects to to see its revenues increase by nearly 40 percent this year as it continues growing its business in the U.S.

“We’re picking up the pace in growth,” Siemiatkowski said. “This year, we’re going to add almost 10 percentage points to our growth rates, and, in absolute terms, we will probably double our growth.”

Klarna, which enables “one-click” shopping and immediate payments for merchants, is going head to head in the U.S. with major payments players, like PayPal.

Siemiatkowski confirmed that Klarna’s U.S. business will begin influencing the company’s growth more substantially by next year.

“It will take some time for it to catch up with the rest of the company,” Siemiatkowski explained, noting that an influx of new customers in German-speaking countries and the Nordics will help to drive growth in 2016.

Just last year, the largest of Europe’s online “buy now” companies said it added one of the marquee names of payments to its roster: American Express. Making the triumvirate is now complete as the company had already solidified relationships with Visa and MasterCard.

The company has already said it reached an agreement with Overstock in early September, marking its first foray into North American eCommerce, with the overall strategy aimed at increasing mobile phone and smart device usage.

The company will support Overstock’s mobile buying experience, enabling the eCommerce site’s customers to shop from their smartphones and tablets. With the launch, Overstock customers will have the ability to use Klarna Checkout for mobile Web guest purchases, but returning users, who have used Klarna before, can complete a purchase with one tap, the company confirmed.