Klarna Chief Claims Six Million New Customers Per Year

The CEO of online split payments company Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, gave a lengthy interview to a news outlet about the future of the company and where he plans to take it.

Klarna is a 15-year-old company that has a valuation of over five billion dollars. It raised $460 million in August and has raised a total of $1.2 billion.

The company is expanding rapidly, and has about 3,000 employees in 17 countries. Siemiatkowski claims they are adding six million new customers each year. When asked about the evolution of his company beyond its checkout product, the CEO discussed other initiatives the company has in store.

“For consumers, when they shop online today, they have so many friction points. One of them might be the ability to get free credit without all the fees and things that people associate with credit cards,” said Siemiatkowski. “But there’s also other things, like, where’s my package? When will it arrive? How do I do returns? Where are the best offers? Where are the best discounts? … And so what we’re trying to do is create that super-smooth shopping experience … the more problems we solve for these customers, the better, and the happier they are, and the more they’re going to use it.”

As for the company’s revenue, Siemiatkowski said instant credit is still the main source. He also said Klarna is targeting a specific demographic.

“If you look at those two things going on here, first is that millennials, in the U.S. and U.K., they don’t have credit cards … 70 percent of millennials in the U.S. only have debit cards,” he said.

He was also asked about credit risk and delinquency.

“We do thorough credit checks. It depends because it’s hard to answer these questions when you’re active in 17 markets, because they’re all different,” noted Siemiatkowski.