Klarna / WIRED Last year could hardly have started better for Swedish buy now, pay later firm Klarna. After signing up a new retailer every seven minutes over the course of 2019, the business started 2020 from a position of strength. UK customer numbers had doubled, US numbers had grown sixfold and revenues had shot up by 31 per cent to $753 million. Then Covid-19 hit and, as country after country went into lockdown, shops around the world were forced to close. Disastrous for many, it was exactly the kind of negative global event Klarna needed to thrive. As Klarna chief executive Sebastian Siemiatkowski wrote in the company’s 2020 interim accounts, the pandemic made its offering “more relevant than ever” as retailers shifted online.