Great news for Europe! expect in the next 5 years 10-15 more FinTech unicorns in Europe. Distribution is in Northern Europe to date: 5 FinTech unicorns in Europe: 1 in the Nordics (Klarna), 2 in the Netherlands (Flowtraders IPO±2Bn and Adyen) and 2 in the UK (FundingCircle and Transferwise)
As it gears up to make a big push into the United States, Stockholm-based payments firm Klarna has been valued at $2.25 billion in a secondary transaction that has ‘company insiders’ selling $80 million worth of stock to VC firm Northzone, mutual fund Wellington Management and foundation Wellcome Trust. Klarna spokesman Erik Engellau-Nilsson says the company can’t comment on media speculation, and that “right now we’re completely focused on our impending US launch and rolling out great new solutions”. Breakit has unearthed documents that give us more information about the deal. In a nutshell, Klarna’s co-founders decided not exercise an option to turn a select amount of stock options into cash, and instead offered them to investors and used the proceeds to increase their own stakes in the business.
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