Payments start-up Klarna recruits former Asos director to its board

Jon Kamaluddin, former international director of UK clothing online retailer Asos, has joined the board of Swedish payments start-up, Klarna.

Klarna is one of only a few European start-ups to be valued at around $1bn. It provides one-click payments to online retailers, allowing consumers to receive products before payment is taken 14 days after the order is placed, meaning shoppers can return goods before they’ve been charged.

The company is already active in 15 European markets, being used by 25 million people and claiming 10 per cent of the northern European online payments market.

The company is now looking to expand globally and hopes that Kamaluddin’s international experience will help them to do so.

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Klarna chief executive, commented: “We have a big part of the journey left. Jon’s experience will be important for that.”

He continued: “Jon is well known in ecommerce across the UK and that will help us here. We intend to increase the pace of internationalisation and will use the UK as a springboard to grow across the Atlantic.”

Kalamuddin added: “One of the biggest pain points in expanding Asos globally was check-out. Adding payments was difficult and needed multiple companies. These guys have created a product that solves that problem and can be used in multiple territories.”

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