Klarna, one of the world’s leading smooth shopping and payment providers, is pleased to announce that Francine (Fran) Ereira has been appointed to the role of General Manager for Australia and New Zealand. Starting February 3, she will be responsible for Klarna’s launch and growth in Australia, as well as lead the company’s daily operations and expansion across the region.

For the past decade Fran has been a seasoned leader in the digital retail finance and payments industry, most recently as a senior executive at Zip Co. She has over 20 years of experience in senior roles at some of Australia’s most prominent retail and technology companies including The Walt Disney Company, Sheridan, eWave and Temando.

The important hire comes on the back of Klarna’s 2019 announcement that it will enter into an exclusive partnership with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Australia’s largest retail and commercial bank, to launch Klarna in Australia and New Zealand. As part of the company’s recent $460M equity raise, Klarna was confirmed as the largest private fintech in Europe and as one of the largest private fintechs globally.

Founded in 2005, Klarna offers a wide range of products within payments, social shopping and personal finances to make it easier for people to shop on and offline, including pay now and pay later services, in-store payment solutions and a new direct-to-consumer shopping app. Granted a full banking license in Europe in 2017 to broaden its product portfolio, Klarna partners with over 190,000 merchants in the UK, North America and Europe including H&M, Michael Kors, Wayfair, Adidas, IKEA, Expedia Group, Sephora, Samsung, Microsoft, ASOS, Peloton, Boohoo, Levi’s, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Nike. The company’s underlying sales volume amounted to USD 29bn in 2018 and has added 26m new consumers in the past year alone.

Klarna’s CEO Sebastian Siemiatkwosk said:

“We’re absolutely delighted that Fran will join Klarna and help accelerate our global journey to offer consumers more transparent, flexible and intuitive retail services centred around their needs. The combination of her strategic leadership and operational experience in the fast growing digital and payments sector in Australia will be a huge asset to our global team. As Klarna continues to grow rapidly across markets, we are excited to bring new innovative services to Australian consumers and add real value to all our merchant partners to further help unlock potential so they can compete effectively.”

Francine Ereira said:

“Klarna has a proven track record of shaking up the payments industry and has established a global brand that’s redefining the way we experience shopping. It’s incredibly exciting to be joining such a disruptive and high-growth company which continues to build superior relationships with their consumers and which retailers can only benefit from. I look forward to helping introduce Klarna’s innovative new shopping solutions in Australia and building on the company’s fantastic global growth and forward momentum.”

Given our commitment to Australia and the plight of persons, wildlife and lands affected by the fires, Klarna is making a donation to the Red Cross Disaster Relief & Recovery Fund to raise funds that will go directly towards helping bushfire relief in affected areas.