Klarna to raise fresh cash at slashed $6.5B valuation

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&gt; But if completed, it would represent a huge discount on the company’s valuation when investors led by an arm of SoftBank Group Corp.<p>Why is it that SoftBank somehow always manages to buy the top?

Klarna and affirm are the next gen of bullshit companies. Like Uber and WeWork before it. Absolutely massive scams fed with easy money and dumping on the next fool.

Klarna is absolutely over-hyped, overvalued and a glorified bank and a complete scam. It also seems that an investor unloaded their shares worth $7.6m a year ago [0][1][2] at a $48B valuation to get retail sucked in and investing at that valuation on a crowdfunding platform.<p>Fast forward today, those 6,971 new investors have lost money as Klarna is on a series of downrounds; now at $6.5B.<p>Now that is what I call a magnificent exit scam that Crowdcube has done, which retail once again loses and becomes the bag holders.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.crowdcube.com&#x2F;cubex&#x2F;klarna" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.crowdcube.com&#x2F;cubex&#x2F;klarna</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;milled.com&#x2F;navia&#x2F;klarna-pitch-is-launching-tomorrow-M8Nu5U_wMFBssK4b" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;milled.com&#x2F;navia&#x2F;klarna-pitch-is-launching-tomorrow-...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thetimes.co.uk&#x2F;article&#x2F;online-investment-platform-crowdcube-secures-allocation-of-stock-in-fintech-firm-klarna-cct7phr0w" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thetimes.co.uk&#x2F;article&#x2F;online-investment-platfor...</a>

That&#x27;s just $36M per month for 18 months!

A year ago this company raised $639 million. Additionally, the article states the company makes it&#x27;s money from fees paid by retailers:<p>&gt;&quot;Instead of charging consumers interest, Klarna takes a fee from the retailers.&quot;<p>This suggests they&#x27;re not subsidizing their customers with VC money in the same way that cheap Uber rides did. Can anyone say why they are they trying to raise more money almost exactly a year after raising the kind of money they did? Are they simply trying to squirrel away some rainy day money or did they burn through most of that $639 million already? If the latter why is this such a capital heavy business if the model is based on retailers paying fees to the company?

Wow Affirm’s stock has literally gone down more than 90% in 7 months or so. Crazy.

We need a new word for de-unicorned startups.<p>I‘m visualizing a unicorn that after a second look turned out to be a mule with litter stuck on his head…

Well that&#x27;s one way to wipe out your common stock holders. Later rounds probably have some sort of down round protection. So this is probably terrible for founders and employees.

Buy now, pay later would never have left the drawing board if interest rates weren’t artificially low for so long. Who wouldn’t want to to take a 0% interest loan in a bull market?<p>All the investors burned by BNPL nonsense have the Federal Reserve to thank. Making winners and losers every day. But it’s a free market still, because it sounds cool to say it muh man!

Anybody get tired of reading the opinions of what must be 13 year olds pretending to know something about multi-billion dollar business valuations?<p>X happened and I knew all along it was obviously going to happen.

If you want to keep track of how the Klarna story evolves - and also other startup &amp; tech news from Sweden - I allow myself to recommend my free newsletter <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.swedishtechweekly.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.swedishtechweekly.com</a>.<p>I apologize for the spammy nature of this comment, but I know some of you will actually appreciate this one.

They had a valuation of ~ $17B not long ago. Does it mean more layoffs? I hope not.

All these fintechs are completely overvalued.<p>Chime is the most notable in my eyes