Klarna (NYSE:KLAR), the global digital bank and flexible payments provider, launches the new feature Tap to Pay across 14 European markets, with the aim of bringing more flexible payments into physical retail at scale and “transforming the Klarna app into an everyday contactless wallet.”
With over 80% of European shopping still happening in physical stores, Tap to Pay brings consumers “the ease of online shopping into the bricks and mortar stores.”
Rather than hunting for cards or juggling between different consumer apps, everything sits in one place — the Klarna app — making purchases more intuitive.
Utilising NFC tech, Tap to Pay turns the Klarna app into a contactless wallet, letting consumers “set up a flexible payment plan and pay with a tap, all in one place – without adding their card to another wallet or switching apps at checkout.”
Tap to Pay builds on the uptake of the debit-first Klarna Card.
The card is debit by default, with the option to “activate credit when needed within the Klarna app, and is accepted at over 150 million merchant locations worldwide through Visa Flexible Credential.”
As reported recently Klarna launched its AI for Climate Resilience Program, a global initiative using artificial intelligence to “strengthen climate adaptation and community resilience across some of the world’s most affected regions.”
The AI for Climate Resilience Program is an initiative by Klarna to accelerate the use of AI in tackling “the local effects of climate change.”
It identifies and supports those developing AI solutions for communities most exposed “to climate risks, turning pilot ideas into tools for adaptation and resilience.”
Klarna will provide each organization with mentoring, technical, and strategic support over 18 months, in addition to funding, “to help scale their solutions responsibly, allowing participants to leverage Klarna’s expertise in applying AI and responsible technology.”
Klarna has spent the past couple years implementing AI into every part of its business, “spearheading practical application and experiencing the acceleration first-hand.”
Now, they’re applying that experience in order “to help tackle one of the biggest challenges of our time: helping communities adapt to climate change.”
Building on Klarna’s commitment to sustainability via its Climate and Nature Transformation Funds, the initiative “expands the company’s AI capabilities.”
In partnership with The Climate Collective, Klarna has supported fifteen impact organizations in adopting AI “for climate innovation, and directed over USD 24 million to more than 100 climate and nature projects worldwide since 2021.”