Klarna to debut $7.99 monthly plan as buy now, pay later firm seeks new revenue sources ahead of IPO

cnbc.com:

Swedish fintech firm Klarna is launching a monthly subscription plan in the U.S. to lock in its heaviest users ahead of an expected initial public offering this year, the company told CNBC.

The product is set to be announced later Wednesday and will cost $7.99 per month, the Stockholm-based company said.

Users of the subscription plan, named Klarna Plus, will get service fees waived, earn double rewards points and have access to curated discounts from partners including Nike and Instacart, according to Chief Marketing Officer David Sandstrom.

Buy now, pay later services such as Klarna and Affirm have surged in popularity in recent years as more Americans rely on a new, fintech-enabled form of credit. The services typically break up a purchase into four payments.

When Klarna users shop outside the firm's network of 500,000 retailers — at places such as Walmart, Target, Amazon and Costco — they pay $1 to $2 in transaction fees.

«The main proposition of Klarna Plus right now is that you don't pay any service fees,» Sandstrom said. «So if you love Klarna and if you love shopping at Target and Walmart, it makes a ton of sense financially.»

Klarna's monthly plan is the latest example of a fintech player building out its offerings to boost recurring revenue. Wall Street investors tend to favor subscription revenue because of its predictability versus one-time transactions. Rival Affirm has explored its own subscription plan, though it hasn't released one yet.

The approach is especially timely as Klarna nears an IPO that could value it at more than $15 billion, Sky News reported in November. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told Bloomberg this week that a listing in the U.S., the firm's largest market, was probably imminent.

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