What: Klarna saw its losses more than quadruple to 502 million pounds in the first quarter, blaming consumer slowdown.

Why it is important: Despite a 21% rise in the number of goods it helped to sell with revenues jumping 24% to 816 million pounds, the BNPL company pointed to higher credit losses in new markets, global expansion efforts and a rise in employee costs as the reason for not having recorded a profit in the last four years.

A slowdown in consumer spending amid soaring inflation and a looming financial authority crackdown in the UK to attempt to regulate BNPL products have significantly affected the environment in which Klarna operates.

Klarna’s value has fallen from 39.2 billion pounds in June 2021 to 6 billion pounds this quarter, following the company being caught in a technology stock sell-off due to market panic about its growth prospects.

Klarna losses quadruple