Klarna purchases Sofort for $150m to grow on the European e-commerce market

Sweden-based online retail payment company Klarna has purchased German payment systems provider Sofort for USD150m.

Klarna is acquiring SOFORT from the majority shareholder Reimann Investors.

Expected market share for the two companies stands at 10% of the European e-commerce market. Klarna has revealed the aim of operating the products of both the companies separately.

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Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and co-founder of Klarna, said: "We are delighted to be given the opportunity to work together with the exceptional team at SOFORT.

"Together we have an incredible opportunity to provide the most trusted payment solution to our merchants and make it simpler and safer for consumers to buy online."

Gerrit Seidel, CEO of Sofort also welcomed the purchase: "Together we are providing online merchants the opportunity to offer both popular payment methods out of one hand in Germany and to develop further product innovations.

"We also look forward to continuing to foster our position as an independent, banking-friendly payment solution."

Klarna has 15m users and 15,000 merchants in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria and it has raised $250m in funding from investors including Sequoia Capital, DST and General Atlantic.

Sofort has 250,000 online shops spread between Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Poland and UK.

Other financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed yet, given the need for approval on the transaction by Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority.

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