Sweden’s Klarna to lay off 10% of staff as war, inflation hits business

A smartphone displays a Klarna logo on top of banknotes is in this illustration taken January 6, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

STOCKHOLM, May 23 (Reuters) – Swedish payments company Klarna will lay off about 10% of its 7,000 employees, it said on Monday, as rampant inflation and the war in Ukraine have worsened business sentiment.

The news, first reported by Swedish business daily Dagens Industri, was delivered to employees through a recorded message on Monday. The company, which offers a buy now, pay later service, posted operating losses of 6.58 billion Swedish crowns ($689 million) in 2021. read more

Klarna said in a statement sent to Reuters that the world had changed since it set out its business plans in the autumn of 2021.

“Since then, we have seen a tragic and unnecessary war in Ukraine unfold, a shift in consumer sentiment, a steep increase in inflation, a highly volatile stock market and a likely recession,” Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Klarna’s chief executive and co-founder, said in the statement.

“It saddens me to say that as a result of this, approximately 10% of our colleagues and friends across all domains in the company will be impacted,” he said.

The tech startup is looking to raise up to 10 billion crowns in a new financing round, Dagens Industri says.

Reporting by Johan Ahlander and Supantha Mukherjee; Editing by David Goodman and Bill Berkrot

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