Klarna Bringing Payment Services to U.S. in 2015

The Swedish e-commerce payment company Klarna is coming to the U.S. next year.

To oversee its U.S. expansion, Klarna has recruited Brian Billingsley from Alliance Data to be chief executive officer; former Bill Me Later and PayPal director Carol Hargrave as chief marketing officer; and former Apple payments counsel Jin Han as chief legal counsel. Matthew Risley from Treliant Risk Advisors will be chief credit officer and John Keatley from Green Dot will be chief financial officer.

Klarna lets customers pay for online purchases by invoice.  The company pays a retailer for a purchase immediately and then collects the amount due from the consumer within 14 days.

"By putting the consumer experience first, we can make the mobile device a platform for shopping, and not just browsing," said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, chief executive officer and co-founder of Klarna, in a Sept. 19 press release. "Across Europe, retailers who use Klarna have seen increased mobile conversion from a few percentage points to close to 50% on average. That translates directly into more sales for retailers."

After purchasing Germany's Sofort AG in December, Klarna now commands payment services for 10% of Europe's $100 billion e-commerce market, accounting for 43,000 online merchants in 14 European countries and 25 million end customers.

"The success Klarna has seen in Europe gives me confidence as we enter the U.S. market," Billingsley said in the release. "I believe our commitment to delivering a streamlined and simple way to buy will become the standard for the industry to follow."