Klarna boss discusses going public vs private rounds

Klarna’s CEO has not ruled out taking public Europe’s most valuable FinTech venture, although another funding round could also be possible.

A $460 million investment pegged the payment venture’s worth at $5.5 billion back in August. Asked by TechCrunch to confirm that it had raised $1.2 billion altogether from investors, Sebastian Siemiatkowski quipped: “It sounds like you know better than I do”.

As for going public, he said: “It was kind of funny, because I was reading an interview with Michael Moritz, who’s on our board, and he was saying that we were going to stay private forever. So, I don’t know, it’s hard for me to know what’s true anymore. People are reporting different things about Klarna.”

When asked about the possibility of another private round, Siemiatkowski commented: “We are in a very exciting phase right now, where the US and UK is growing so fast for us. . . And we want to continue investing. We think the potential market in in the US is just massive.”

He continued: “So we’ll see what happens, but I wouldn’t rule it out, that one thing that could happen is raise even more money to be investing even more in growth and product delivery, and new products and services, as well as sales and marketing in the US.”

Berlin bound

Earlier this week, we reported on Klarna’s plans to open a tech hub in Germany’s capital, Berlin, at the beginning of next year. This will enable it to further build out its product portfolio and services, better serve its merchant and consumer base across Europe and the US and tap into the city’s talent base.

Further details here.