Chrysalis Investments’ (CHRY) net asset value (NAV) per share grew by 7.7% to 251.96p in the third quarter to 30 September 2021, taking year-to-date NAV growth to an impressive 39.4%.

The private equity trust, which supports tech disruptors with later stage and pre-IPO funding, many of which are in the ‘fintech’ space, said the quarter was relatively quiet in terms of funding rounds, yet the portfolio saw significant revenue growth.

Key contributors during the quarter were fast-growing digital bank Starling, the recently listed foreign exchange and payments group Wise (WISE) and Swedish buy now, pay later firm Klarna which accounts for 27.6% of the portfolio.

The latter is growing fast in the US, where according to Statista, buy now, pay later penetration is only 2%, compared to 5% in the UK, 10% in Australia and 23% in Sweden.

Klarna recently inked a strategic partnership with payments processing platform Stripe, which will allow retailers using Stripe to activate Klarna in their checkouts within minutes, although its business model is not without controversy.

Buy now, pay later firms allow people to postpone shopping bills for a short while, or split payments into more manageable chunks over time, interest free, and experts believe the payment method is set to have its biggest Christmas yet, although critics argue stricter rules are needed because users can easily end up in debt.

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