Klarna is closing three of its overseas offices in a bid to reduce costs ahead of the fintech’s incoming IPO.
The company, which was founded in 2005 and helped mainstream its buy now, pay later checkout option, filed to go public on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. In the runup to its IPO, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has waxed lyrical about the benefits of artificial intelligence in cutting costs and increasing operational efficiency.
Klarna plans to close offices in Amsterdam and the German city of Mannheim by the end of this year, and won’t renew the lease for its office in Columbus, Ohio by the end of March 2027. Klarna opened its Columbus outpost in 2014 to serve as the launch pad for its U.S. expansion. The cuts equate to more than 50k sq.feet in commercial real estate.
“As part of our strategic decision to drive operational efficiency, leverage Al and reduce administrative costs in our business, we have decided to reduce the size of our office space,” Klarna’s IPO prospectus said.
Klarna also leases office space in three other cities in Germany, its base in Denmark and its HQ in Stockholm, and maintains membership agreements for co-working spaces in at least 10 other locations globally. The three offices Klarna plans to shut are some of the smallest locations it leases aside from its Denmark space.
The filings also reveal that Klarna reduced its staff numbers from 5,527 employees in 2022 to 3,422 employees by the end of last year.
A Klarna representative declined to comment further.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/klarna-shuts-offices-news/
