Via Business Insider: Visa and Klarna announced today they have reached an agreement for Visa to make an equity investment in the Swedish fintech company. The announcement comes just two weeks after Klarna secured its Swedish banking license. The two companies are also committing to a strategic partnership with the aim to accelerate online and mobile commerce, says a joint press statement. With a partnership, Visa will get better access to the online merchant realm whereas Klarna — according to CEO Siemiatkowski — will be able to “strengthen its global presence and product portfolio”, giving the Swedish payment company access to Visa's s 50 million offline and online customers. “The Visa and Klarna partnership is a natural fit. We both understand consumer credit and the value of consumer centricity in developing innovative payment solutions”, said Seimiatowski. The pair is targeting a growing online retail sales market, which is expected to grow 12 percent per annum in Western Europe by 2021 according to Forrester. “Visa has invested in Klarna for its proven expertise in consumer credit and online purchasing. Together, we share a vision for how today’s online and mobile commerce experiences can be as simple as they are in the real world”, said Jim McCarthy, executive vice president, innovation and strategic partnerships, Visa Inc. ”They have their bank licence, a broad customer base and plans to expand beyond their current markets. Klarna is a natural partner," Bill Gajda, Visa's Head of Innovation said to Di Digital. The end goal of the partnership seems clear: to acquire as many merchants as possible both online and offline, and provide them with a broad range of payment and personal finance products. The two companies didn’t disclose how much equity Visa will receive, and said that further details on the partnership will come at a later date. Visa's planned investment is part of a global strategy to open up the company's ecosystem to digital players and follows on previous bets in U.S. payment giants Stripe and Square (10 percent stake in the latter). Visa has also recently opened an in-house startup accelerator, Collabs. Valued at more than $2 billion, Klarna has become a leading online payments provider with more than 60 million customers and 70.000 merchants across Europe. Its Visa partnership will provide it instant heft in a pivot into personal banking services, and might also ease its entry into the U.S. market.