Klarna now a "competitive alternative" to Google and Amazon after completing PriceRunner deal

Klarna said it will now offer retail partners a “competitive alternative” to Google, Amazon and Facebook after completing its acquisition of Nordic price comparison service PriceRunner.

The buy, now pay later giant reportedly shelled out SEK 9bn ($1.05bn) to buy the price comparison company last year.

The acquisition, which has now been completed, enables Klarna to add new features to its app, including price comparison and product reviews.

Klarna says this means it provides a more seamless shopping and banking experience for its 147m customers worldwide.

PriceRunner, founded in 1999, operates across Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the UK and compares over 3.4m products from 22,500 retailers in 25 countries.

Up until 30 September 2021, PriceRunner had revenues of nearly £40m and is used by millions of customers each month.

Klarna said: "Klarna’s 400k+ global retail partners as well as PriceRunner’s retail partners will benefit from increased website traffic from high intent consumers and optimized marketing opportunities to further drive their growth."

Some have suggested that the purchase of PriceRunner means that Klarna becomes more like a “Google for shopping”- and other tech giants- where users discover and buy products.

Klarna now sees itself in this light.

“The acquisition will serve to strengthen our consumer offering and that Klarna will not be a marketplace but a viable and competitive alternative for retail partners vs Amazon, Google and Facebook,” said David Fock, Klarna’s chief product officer.

“Together with PriceRunner we already have some exciting plans on how we can swiftly integrate our teams and technology stacks to launch products that enhance the shopping experience for Klarna’s 147m global consumers.”

As part of the acquisition, PriceRunner’s 200+ strong team will join the ranks of Klarna’s 4,000 employees.

Mikael Lindahl, CEO of PriceRunner, said: “We are really excited about this next chapter in PriceRunner’s journey, continuing it with a strong, global player like Klarna.

“I know that we can create the very best shopping experience for consumers together and am really excited for how our company will grow in the future together with Klarna.” 

Last year, Klarna launched its own price comparison service as it looked to pinch market share from Google’s ad listing business. It is unclear how the two offerings will work together.

Last week, the Stockholm-based fintech, which is valued at £34.1bn according to its last round of funding, announced that it has launched Klarna Kosma to capitalise on the growth of its Open Banking platform.