Klarna losses triple after aggressive U.S. expansion and mass layoffs

Klarna on Wednesday reported a dramatic jump in losses in the first half, adding to a deluge of negative news for the “buy now, pay later” pioneer.

The Swedish payments firm generated revenues of 9.1 billion Swedish krona ($950 million) in the period spanning January to the end of June 2022. That was up 24% from a year ago.

But the company also racked up hefty losses. Klarna’s pre-tax loss soared more than threefold year-on-year to nearly 6.2 billion krona. In the first half of 2021, Klarna lost around 1.8 billion Swedish krona.

The company, which allows users to spread the cost of purchases over…