
Fin-tech Klarna aiming at social shopping growth
Fin-tech Klarna, which became successful by providing the possibility of shopping payment by instalments, announced the acquisition of Swedish start-up APPRL, a SaaS platform that connects influencers to e-commerce retailers for branded content.
Klarna aims at growing the shopping possibilities via their app, which has grown by now to 90 million global active users and 2 million transactions a day via 250,000+ retailers.
With this acquisition, Klarna is looking at equipping their product’s growth versus social commerce, that it is expected to account for $84 billion of US retail sales by 2024 with 48% of US Millennial and Gen Z internet users already having purchased products through social channels.
Social shopping is growing across all demographics, and by 2022, 28% of the entire US population are expected to shop across social channels.
Founded in Stockholm in 2005, Klarna is by now active in 17 markets and one of the biggest private fintechs globally with a valuation of $45.6 billion. Apart from payment facilitation options, it now includes a comparison shopping service, an AI-driven styling engine and content creation platform and a conversational shopping assistant.
APPRL, with headquarters one block away from Klarna’s office in Stockholm, describe themselves as an end-to-end influencer marketing software, tailored for the needs of e-commerce brands, where marketers can find high-performing creators, collaborate efficiently and track performance in real-time. They have received funding from the EU’s innovation fund.
Moonshot News is an independent European news website for all IT, Media and Advertising professionals, powered by women and with a focus on driving the narrative for diversity, inclusion and gender equality in the industry.
Our mission is to provide top and unbiased information for all professionals and to make sure that women get their fair share of voice in the news and in the spotlight!
We produce original content, news articles, a curated calendar of industry events and a database of women IT, Media and Advertising associations.