Klarna has reported losses rising by almost 85 per cent in the first half of this year, compared to the same time last year.

Between January and June 2019, the Swedish buy now, pay later business saw net losses of $9.52 million, but in the first six months of this year, this rose to $62.98 million in net losses.

However, the FinTech unicorn did report a total net operating income of $529 million – up 37 per cent year-on-year.

For the 2019 financial year, Klarna announced its first full year of losses to date, at $92.8 million.

This was mostly put down to the firm’s rapid expansion, with a new engineering hub in Berlin and offices to support its US venture last year increasing operational costs.

The latest financial documents stated Klarna added almost 14 million consumers over the last six months, while monthly active app users have doubled to around 12 million. It claimed that nearly 1.2 million of those are in the US.

In terms of merchant growth, Klarna has onboarded more than 35,000 new retailers between January and June - around 200 new merchants each day - with recent additions including Vans, Timberland and Ralph Lauren.

The geographic expansion plans also continue apace, with launches in Belgium, Australia and Spain during the first half of 2020.

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