Klarna grows merchant footprint

Klarna just pushed deeper into southern Europe by extending its Douglas checkout deal into Italy and Spain on April 9, adding two more markets to a beauty chain partnership it already had elsewhere in Europe. The move landed three weeks after Klarna said it had passed 1 million merchants globally. (klarna.com) (investors.klarna.com) Douglas is not a tiny test case. It is one of Europe’s biggest beauty retailers, so putting Klarna’s instalment button into Douglas checkouts in Italy and Spain gives Klarna access to a category where baskets can jump from a €20 lipstick to a much larger skincare or fragrance order. (klarna.com 1) (klarna.com 2) This is the basic trade in buy now, pay later. A merchant adds a split-payment option at checkout because some shoppers who would have abandoned a €120 cart will finish the purchase if they can spread it over 3 payments instead of paying all at once. (klarna.com) (investors.klarna.com) Klarna has been building the merchant side of that pitch fast. On March 17 it said merchant count had grown 47% in a year, with 285,000 merchants added in 2025 and more than 115,000 added in the fourth quarter alone. (investors.klarna.com) The company is also trying to show that growth is not coming only from fashion splurges. Klarna said Leisure, Sport and Hobby was its fastest-growing merchant category in February 2026, up 91% year over year, which suggests it wants to be the payment button for gym memberships, travel, home fixes, and everyday spending, not just sneakers and cosmetics. (investors.klarna.com) That expansion only works if the loan math stays under control. In fourth quarter 2025, Klarna reported $38.7 billion in gross merchandise volume, $1.082 billion in revenue, and provisions for credit losses equal to 0.65% of gross merchandise volume, down from 0.72% in the prior quarter. (klarna.com) (investors.klarna.com) That is why every new merchant launch is really an underwriting test in disguise. Klarna has to decide, order by order, how many shoppers to approve, how much fraud and missed repayment to expect, and whether the fee it earns from the merchant is big enough to cover those losses and still leave profit. (investors.klarna.com 1) (investors.klarna.com 2) Investors are still willing to fund that bet. A MarketBeat report published April 9 said Tudor Investment Corp opened a new position in Klarna worth about $5.68 million, buying 155,000 shares, even after analysts had cut price targets and the stock had fallen far below its $57.20 12-month high. (marketbeat.com) Klarna has also been lining up more funding behind the scenes so merchant growth does not choke on balance-sheet limits. On April 1, the company said a $1.7 billion transaction could support more than $40 billion of lending, following a March 24 announcement of a $2 billion facility with Elliott supporting $17 billion of United States financing expansion. (investors.klarna.com) So the Douglas expansion is small on its own, but it fits a very specific machine. Klarna is trying to put its button in more checkouts, keep loss rates low enough that each order still pays, and make sure outside capital is there when those extra approvals turn into real loans. (klarna.com) (investors.klarna.com)