Klarna is turning the world pink ๐๐; Two more reasons to be bullish about Coinbase ๐ค; The NFT bubble has finally burst ๐ซง
FinTech is Eating the World, 28 August
Hey Everyone,
Happy Monday! I hope you managed to recharge over the weekend because weโre starting the new week strong ๐ช๐ผ Today weโre looking at Klarna, which is turning the world pink (latest numbers + whatโs next & some deeper dives into BNPL pioneer), two more reasons to be bullish about Coinbase (+ deep dives if youโre not bullish enough!), and the NFT bubble that has finally burst (in retrospect, it was inevitable). Letโs jump straight into the interesting stuff ๐ถ
Klarna is turning the world pink ๐๐
The news ๐๏ธ Swedish Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) pioneer Klarna recently shared their latest numbers.
With some BNPL providers - including Clearpay and Zip - leaving the market due to challenging economic conditions, Klarna says that its investment is paying off and it sees strong growth across Europe.
Letโs take a look.
More on this ๐ Here are the key numbers of Klarnaโs Q2 2023:
GMV (the value of goods sold through Klarna) was up 14% across Europe, year-on-year. In the UK it rose 26% YoY.
This has outpaced e-commerce, which grew by just 1% in the same period. Solid!
Klarna has amassed 100 million European consumers and has partnered with over 470,000 merchants. This continues to put them way ahead of the competition. Even PayPal PYPL 0.00%โ lags behindโฆ
The firm has another 18 million customers and 31,000 merchants in the UK.
Since 2020, Klarna has launched in 11 European markets, most recently in Romania and the Czech Republic. This should further facilitate their growth and engagement:
Side note: Klarna calls itself an โAI-powered global payments network and shopping assistantโ:
The AI Bubble is real ๐ซง
โ๏ธ THE TAKEAWAY
So whatโs next? ๐ค First and foremost, more growth in Europe. While others are slowing down or leaving the continent altogether, Klarna is doing the opposite - itโs doubling down, which will only strengthen its position and leadership in Europe. With a few M&As and/or bankruptcies in the BNPL place, the Swedish FinTech giant is perfectly positioned to capture a massive market share, which is set to become a โฌ300 billion industry by 2025. And thatโs not even it as an equally impressive opportunity is being locked in the US as well. Klarna will generate $33.38B in the US BNPL payment value by 2027, pulling ahead of Affirm AFRM 0.00%โ in a period of massive growth for BNPL providers, according to the Insider Intelligence forecast. This will be driven by the expansion of its BNPL services (i.e. a recent partnership with Airbnb ABNB 0.00%โ) and Gen Z spending (healthy usage from Gen X and baby boomers is also expected).
In other words, Klarna continues building the ultimate shopping destination of the future. The Google of Shopping, if you will. And if it goes the way it seems to be going right now, Klarna might soon become the most impressive turnaround story in the history of FinTech. Bravo.
ICYMI: Klarna just lost $1 billion. But it's not bad! ๐ค [deep dive into Klarna]
Klarna doubles down on AI ๐ค
Klarnaโs fresh acquisition to further solidify its Super App strategy ๐ฒ