Klarna CEO and co-founder, Simon Siemiatkowski, was recently on Yahoo Finance to talk several different topics from credit cards to Klarna’s new AI-powered shopping assistant.
Since Siemiatkowski has been in the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) space and part of Klarna for 18 years. He always has interesting insight. One part of the conversation that specifically caught my eye which was a quip about the crypto industry.
I have been one of the biggest crypto skeptic. I’ve been saying, no, forget about it. I’ve showed it to my mom, and she doesn’t understand how it place any value for her, which is always my mom test.
I thought this was interesting that he mentioned that Klarna does not seem interested in getting into the crypto industry. At least this is how I interpret his comment above.
The crypto space has seen a lot of issues recently with the collapse of FTX and Silvergate. Two major crypto exchanges that shutdown. FTX is still going through a major US federal lawsuit with it’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried and many of FTX former executives who illegally used customer funds for trading. Coinbase, one of the largest crypto exchanges, has also been struggling.
Affirm, one of Klarna’s major competitor’s, shutdown it’s crypto business unit several months ago. Affirm seems to want to focus on the BNPL lending business.
I would not be surprised if the Klarna team have taken note of this and have decided against going into the crypto space from Affirm’s moves. So don’t expect Klarna Crypto as a service anytime soon if ever.
Another interest tidbit from the conversation was Klarna is currently processing 2 million transactions a day with about 150 million customers globally. Impressive numbers considering most people are still unfamiliar with BNPL and how it operates.
Moral of the story is it’s always good to listen to your mom. Thanks Simon’s mom! 🙂
1 thought on “Klarna Rejects Crypto, Not Mom Approved!”