Klarna Oasis Los Angeles pop-up store puts focus on sustainability
Buy now pay later big hitter Klarna will host Klarna Oasis, its first retail pop-up in Los Angeles, on Saturday and Sunday.
People will be able to shop exclusive discounts from fashion, beauty, and accessory brands, including Lunya, Rebecca Minkoff, RE/DONE, VRAI, AVYA, Christy Dawn, Kjaer Weis, Westman Atelier, Pepper, and The Detox Market.
Klarna’s Pay in 4 option will be available at check-out.
Exclusive discounts will also be available online over the weekend.
"We're excited to bring the smoooth Klarna shopping experience to life for the first time in Los Angeles, spotlighting mission driven merchant partners that support a range of important causes from sustainability in fashion to clean beauty," says Raji Behal, Global Head of Partner Success, Klarna.
“We realise we have a responsibility to help drive positive change towards a better future, and providing our consumers unique access to shop more mindfully is just one of the many ways we are working to make a difference."
Shoppers will also be able to donate gently used shoes and clothing in exchange for an on-site discount in partnership with Soles4Souls.
There will also be a fireside chat on Saturday, on the importance of regenerative agriculture within the sustainable fashion movement.
Speakers include Raji Behal, Global Head of Partner Success at Klarna; Aras Baskauskas, Co-Founder and CEO of Christy Dawn; and Jasmyne Spencer, professional soccer player at Angel City Football Club, of which Klarna is a founding partner.
Challenging times
Last week, Klarna announced a $800 million financing round, valuing it at $6.7 billion.
This featured new investors including Mubadala, the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, in addition to existing backers such as Sequoia and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Sounds great until you take in to account that, in June 2021, the company was valued at $45.6 billion after closing on a $639 million round of funding, making it the highest valued private FinTech in Europe at that time. Ouch!
Michael Moritz, Chair at Klarna and a partner at Sequoia, blamed “investors suddenly voting in the opposite manner to the way they voted for the past few years”.
He predicted that “after investors emerge from their bunkers, the stocks of Klarna and other first rate companies will receive the attention they deserve”.
Co-founder and CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, meanwhile, took to Twitter to flag that the funding was secured “during the worst stock downturn and challenging macro in decades”.
“We are not immune to public peers being down 75-90% and hence our valuation is down on par,” he added.
He also threw out “some facts that the media might omit in reporting on this”.
Further details on that here.
