You use Klarna for Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) at your favorite stores, but have you ever wondered what does “Klarna” mean?
Where did the word Klarna come from anyway?
While Klarna has been making waves in the financial technology and BNPL space for years, most don’t know where the name Klarna actually comes from.
Let’s find out.
What does “Klarna” Mean?
Klarna, is a Swedish word meaning “clear”.
Well that isn’t actually a direct translation but that is where the root word comes from.
Klarna originates from the Swedish word “klara”. In Swedish this means “to clear” or “to be clear”.
The name Klarna was chosen for 3 reasons:
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It reflects the company’s mission of simplifying and streamlining the online payment and shopping experience.
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It’s short, memorable, and easy to pronounce in many different languages. This makes it ideal for a global brand.
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It has a positive connotation, unlike it’s old brand.
Why use a Swedish name? Klarna is a Swedish company.
Klarna was founded in 2005 in Stockholm, Sweden by Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Niklas Adalberth, and Victor Jacobsson. The trio met while studying at the economics while in college. Klarna’s services in the UK have grown significantly since their introduction to the market. They have gained popularity for their “buy now, pay later” option, which allows customers to make purchases and pay in installments. This has made Klarna a popular choice for online shoppers in the UK.
By choosing a word that means “clear” the company wanted to signal its commitment to making the BNPL and financial space more efficient.
Rebranding from Kreditor?
Here’s an interesting fact about Klarna, it wasn’t always called Klarna. What the original name for the company? Kreditor…
Yes, that’s right Kreditor was the the original name for Klarna.
Kreditor also has Swedish naming origins. The word is Swedish for “creditor”. The name Kreditor reflected the company’s initial focus on providing invoice-based payment solutions for online merchants and not BNPL services which the company focuses on today.
As the company expanded its financial products and went international, the name Kreditor was not an ideal fit. Espicially with a global customer base.
So, in 2009, the founders decided to rebrand from Kreditor to Klarna.
Klarna better represents the mission of clearing the path for smoother payments and shopping experiences.
And the rest, as they say, is history. The BNPL company has continued to innovate and grow, becoming a major player in the fintech world and now processes over 2 million transactions per day.
What do you think is a better name? Kreditor or Klarna?
H, both my husband & I used Stocard, purely to store our loyalthy cards into one convenient app & not have to physically have the cards on hand. Carrying all the cards became a nightmare & Stocard provided the perfect app for us. We used it for carrying all our Coffee Cards, our Drivers Licence (for ID purposes), Super Card, Woolworths Rewards Card, AirNZ Card, Library Card, etc. We would never use this app for the purposes of paying anything at all. – never. Plus, both of us shared the coffee club loyalty cards on our own Stocard Apps, meaning either of us could use our own card, kept in the app & it would amalgamate all our points.
Has there recently been some upgrade or something. My husband went to get a coffee yesterday & his scan barcode wouldn’t work?
Even my own site is showing differently but I have realised that I have to just click on wallet.
I having been trying to help my husband get his back up & running & it said he had to login again – why?
It would really be appreciated if we received an email to advise of any change or upgrades. My preference would be to bring back Stocard, it was fantastic.
I would really appreciate hearing from you with an answer why my husbands site wouldn’t accept his barcode, we have both used our own numerous times without any issue, until this happened with him yesterday. He then lost the ability to store 1 more coffee on his card.
Please respond to my email address.
Regards, Faye
My storecard app on my mobile does not work. Since I moved over from my storecard app to Klarna I cannot log in to open my loyalty cards. Please help.