Following last month’s agreement with artificial intelligence firm Palantir, Bolt has signed a new deal with Klarna to integrate flexible payments into its checkout platform.
The partnership will place Klarna’s payments technology front and center on the websites of merchants using Bolt’s CheckoutOS. Once the integration goes live in the U.S. later this year, Bolt’s customers will be able to offer Klarna’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) services to their customer without any additional legwork.
While Klarna is best known for its BNPL loans, Bolt CEO and co-founder Ryan Breslow told Techcrunch that the partnership is not just about BNPL. The two companies plan to collaborate on building a new model for flexible payments that extends beyond traditional BNPL offerings.
“We know that Klarna has launched an aggressive partner strategy, and they have integrated with basically anyone who aggregates merchants—like Bolt and others,” said Don Apgar, Director of Merchant Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research. “Bolt says that this Klarna integration will be special—like no other—but stops short of the details on what Bolt would do to accomplish that.”
You Can Afford This
Expanding its footprint—both beyond BNPL and outside its native Europe—has been a key objective for Klarna in recent months. The company recently launched a debit card and unveiled ambitious plans to become a super app, much like China’s Alipay and WeChat Pay, aiming to handle all aspects of customers’ lives.
However, BNPL loans remain the company’s bread and butter. While these are popular with consumers, their impact on merchants is still uncertain.
“We know from research data that BNPL offerings perform much better when they are integrated at the merchant level and displayed on the product page in e-commerce,” Apgar said. “The idea is that when the consumer is looking at the item and deciding if they can afford it, you want the BNPL offer to be right there saying, ‘Yes! you can afford this.’”
“Displaying BNPL on the checkout page as a payment option is a convenience for consumers, but it doesn’t help the merchant drive conversion, because the shopper has already made the decision to buy the product, hence the reason they are on the checkout page,” he said.
A Significant Partnership
Regardless of the implications for merchants, the Klarna partnership is significant for Bolt, which has grappled with leadership turnover and funding shortfalls in recent years.
Breslow stepped down in 2022 amid allegations that he inflated metrics and misled investors. He later returned as CEO under renewed controversy—this time tied to an ultimatum issued to Bolt shareholders and an ambitious goal to raise $450 million and hit a $14 billion valuation.
While it appears Bolt did not secure that funding, the company gained momentum by signing a deal with Palantir to launch an AI-powered checkout solution that customizes the shopping experience based on consumer behavior.
Like Klarna, Bolt has also expressed plans to evolve into an all-encompassing financial services platform for consumers. The partnerships with Klarna and Palantir mark meaningful progress for the fintech, but the company’s long-term outlook remains uncertain.
“Since Bolt is a checkout solution—and even though they claim to be powering their checkout product with AI from industry leader Palantir—it’s not clear how their addition of Klarna as a payment option is going to drive additional value for their merchants compared with other BNPL offerings,” Apgar said. “Competition in the checkout space is heating up, especially with Paze getting aggressive this year in soliciting merchants to integrate to its checkout platform.”
“Bolt’s adjusted strategy has it expanding horizontally as a consumer wallet that travels across merchants and will support stablecoins, etc., but the digital wallet space is just as crowded for consumers as the checkout space is for merchants,” he said. “It’s hard to tell whether this isa cohesive strategy or just a larger product roadmap that attempts to justify the $14 billion valuation.”
