Chrysalis nurses 41% decline in portfolio valuation, led by Klarna

Starling Bank was also marked down due to the valuations of its listed peers.

Klarna’s bruising $800m down-round this summer left fintech investor Chrysalis Investments with a 41 per cent decline in its portfolio valuation this year.

Chrysalis, whose investments include Klarna, Starling Bank and Wise, pointed to the “macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop” including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine as the reason for the difficulties.

The NAV (net asset value) of its portfolio was down 9.6 per cent in the quarter between July and September, and down 41 per cent over the year ending 30 September.

This decline accounted for a 71.86p fall in Chrysalis’s NAV per ordinary share to 147.79p, of which Klarna was responsible for 57.66p of the decline.

Chrysalis now holds Klarna as the 6th most valuable company in its portfolio with its stake worth £55m, last September Klarna was the most valuable stake Chrysalis owned, worth £387m.

While Starling Bank didn’t raise any external funding during the period, Chrysalis said it marked down its investment regardless due to the comparable valuations of its listed peers.

Excluding Klarna, Chrysalis said its private investments suffered an average write-down of just 1 per cent.

“The macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop is uncertain, but we remain confident that many of our assets will continue to disrupt the huge markets in which they operate; our top six holdings have a sub 1% market share of their aggregate total addressable markets,” said Richard Watts and Nick Williamson, co-portfolio managers of Chrysalis.

“In our experience, disruptive companies generally compound strong rates of growth throughout the economic cycle, and we believe this will be reflected in our NAV over time.”