Klarna launches new open banking sandbox initiative

Swedish fintech Klarna is opening up access to its open banking platform, Klarna Kosma, for select start-ups and firms for three months at no cost.

With the new “sandbox” initiative, Klarna hopes to help start-ups develop Proofs of Concepts (POC) in the e-commerce, data and analytics and fintech space, accelerating innovation in the development of open banking use cases.

Launched in April this year, Klarna Kosma provides access to 15,000 banks across 27 countries through a single API, enabling fintechs, financial institutions and merchants to build apps and services.

“Open banking was introduced to wrest control of consumer data away from the big banks and make it securely available to drive innovation” says Wilko Klaassen, VP open banking at Klarna.

“With that data accessible through simple APIs, with consumers’ permissions, a whole new vista of potential use cases has opened up. The initiative we are launching today aims to add rocket fuel to the innovation process.”

As part of the offer, companies will be able to access the platform for three months, free of charge, with a limit of 300 transactions or active users per month. Companies will also get support from experts at Klarna to validate their use cases.