In there with the big dogs

Any self-respecting tech firm CEO needs a good foundation story, whether it’s dropping out of a prestigious university that most people would kill to get into, or tinkering away in a garage.

For Klarna, the Cinderella story is boosted by two of its founders having met while working in the fragrant kitchens of Burger King, one of them responsible for sticking the “meat” onto the grill and the other taking it off and sticking it in a bun. With training like that, no wonder they’re billionaires many times over.

Klarna is the shopping method of choice for those who have moved beyond the old-fashioned concept of paying for what you buy when you buy it. With minimal delay for pesky notions such as credit checking, it allows the consumer to defer payment or pay in three equal slices without charging interest unless payment dates are missed. This allows careful cash flow watchers to send stuff back before they’ve been charged for it, and it makes its money by charging the retailer a commission.

The service has about 90-million users, and 13,500 retailers in the UK alone offer its product, seduced by the prospect of it bringing punters flocking in.

Unusually for a land-grabbing unicorn, it even makes money, with operating profit up 44% last year to $1.1bn. Its valuation has jumped to $51bn in its latest fundraising round, rather more than that Diplodocus of the banking world, Barclays.

The regulators are sniffing around on the basis that it encourages people to buy stuff they don’t need, but its customers don’t seem to mind.

Klarna is for shoppers who have gone beyond paying for what you buy when you buy it