Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO von Klarna, spoke on Monday, April 4, 2022, at a Fintech event in London.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg via Getty Images
London – After 20 years in the role of CEO by Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski is about to take his hardest test so far, as the financial technology company is preparing for its blockbuster debut in New York.
Siemiatkowski, 43, was a co-founder of Klarna in 2005 with the Swedish entrepreneurs Niklas Adalberth and Victor Jacobsson with the aim of taking on traditional banks and credit card companies with a more user-friendly online payment experience.
Today Klarna is synonymous with “Now, now, pay, pay later”-a payment method with which people buy things and either postpone the payment by the end of the month or can pay off their purchases over a number of the same, interest-free monthly installments.
But while Siemiatkowski Klarna grew into a FinTech power package, his entrepreneurial journey was not without challenges – from increasing competition from competitors such as PayPalPresent Confirm And blockAfterpay for an 85% rating leap.
Nevertheless, Siemiatkowski did not bring these challenges in harmony, and the pronounced co-founder is not shy to challenge criticisms in the run-up to an IPO that could estimate it with $ 15 billion.
“Crazy enough”
In October 2024, CNBC met to London during a visit to Siamiatkowski, the Swedish entrepreneur. For a businessman who has exposed himself to a roller coaster ride with ups and downs compared to his two-year CEO office, Klarnas boss has a quiet air for him.
“Regardless of all cycles and everything we went through with the company Google In size we can become a hundred billion dollars market companies or a trillion dollar, “said Siemiatkowski to CNBC.” I'm still crazy enough to think that this is achievable. “
After a darling in the Pandemie era worth $ 46 billion in a funding round in 2022, Klarna rose to 85% to $ 6.7 billion as increasing inflation and interest rates in 2022, which bowed to investigate in the event of high-growth technology companies.
But the company tried to rebuild this value in the following years.
Klarna deserves money mainly with the fees that dealers calculate for the provision of his payment services in addition to the income from interest -bearing financing plans and advertising revenues.
In his IPO registration opened open financial data show that Klarna recorded sales of $ 2.8 billion last year, an increase of 24% compared to the previous year and a net profit of $ 21 million compared to a net loss of $ 24 in 2023.
Optimistic on AI
After the start of the generative KI chatt of Openai in November 2022, Siemiatkowski Klarna's Focus turned to taking the technology and in particular in a way that could reduce the costs and improve the company's profitability.
The strategy of Siemiatkowski and his comments on KI also attracted controversy.
In 2023, Klarna imposed freezing in setting to tighten the costs. The following year, the company announced that its AI Chatbot did the work of 700 full-time customer service jobs.
Klarna's CEO then said in August that its company could reduce its overall workforce from 5,000 to 3,800.
“Simply no attitude … the company is getting smaller,” he told Reuters News Agency and added that jobs disappear due to wear and not due to layoffs.
When asked by CNBC about his views about AI and the annoyance they caused, Siemiatkowski suggested that he was “apologized”, and repeated comments by Mark Zuckerberg on the “20-year mistake” of the Meta CEO, to take responsibility for problems for which he believed that his company was not to blame.
Siemiatkowski doubled and added that Ai can already do many of the jobs – but I don't want to be one of the technology leaders who are on a stage and says: “Don't worry, it will be new jobs” because I don't know what these new jobs are. “
“I just want to be transparent and honest with what is happening in my opinion, and I would rather be open about it because I know what these people, the technology leaders say if they are not in public phases and don't say exactly the same things,” he told CNBC in October.
A pronounced CEO
Siemiatkowski is no stranger to defend his company in response to criticisms, especially if it is challenged via Klarne's business model to offer short-term financing for all possible things from clothing to online overnight.
Last week Klarna announced an impotence with Doorash to offer his flexible payment options for the US food-delivery app. However, the move was encountered with setbacks from Internet users, who said that he filled the saddle consumers with more debts.
An X user has published a meme that shows the personal financial expert Dave Ramsey with the caption: “What do you mean that you have $ 11,000 in 'Doordash debt'?”
Siemiatkowski went to X to defend the move, and said that Klarna offers “many payment methods”, including the possibility of fully paying immediately or completely moving payment by the end of the month in addition to monthly installments.
“Doordash offers many products beyond food!” Klarnas boss said on X in response to criticism. “I know we are best known for payment in 4. But you can also use a credit card at Doordash.”
In 2022, the pronounced entrepreneur emphasized that his company was credit cards and “extremely recession -proof” after the company released 10% of its workforce.
While Klarna is approaching his stock exchange debut, investors will probably examine his track record and whether he is still the right person to keep the company in the long term.
Lena Hackelöer, CEO of the Fintech startups Briten Payments based in Stockholm, is someone who worked under the leadership of Siemiatkowski and worked for the company for seven years in various marketing functions.
She pressed the admiration for the co-founder of Klarna and pushed back the suggestions that the leadership managed the business poorly during the pandemic.
“I never thought that they had managed wrong, which was somehow reported,” Hackelöer told CNBC in an interview in November. “I think that they only focus on growth – because this direction that gave investors.”
Roller coaster ride
Siemiatkowski admits that the construction of Klarna was not always rosy.
When CEO, according to the greatest challenge with which he was ever made as CEO, Siemiatkowski said that 10% of the Klarna workforce in 2022 was the most difficult for him.
“It was very difficult because I did not predict that investor's mood would shift so quickly and that people would switch from the evaluation of companies like ours as high and then to something so deeper,” he said.
“This is obviously very difficult, because then you notice how 'OK, S-I has to make a change. It will not be sustainable to continue, and I have to protect consumers, the company's stakeholders, the employees who have to do investors [do] What is right for all of my voters, “continued Siemiatkowski.
Klarna is a synonym for the trend “Now, buy now, pay” to make a purchase and to postpone the payment by the end of the month or pay interest -free monthly installments.
Nikolas Kokovlis | Nurphoto | Getty pictures
“But unfortunately it will influence the smaller group, which randomly accounts for about 10% of our employees.”
Like other technology companies, Klarna grew significantly over the Covid 19 pandemic. In 2020, the company increased the gross goods volume or the total value of all sales processed via its platform by 46% compared to the previous year to $ 53 billion.
I think someone who is a bit healthy is not something you take lightly, right? It's a difficult decision. It makes you cry. I cried.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski
CEO Klarna
The company also has hundreds of new employees on board on board to the chance of capitalization and expansion of the effects of state blocks on consumer behavior and the broader acceleration of the e-commerce adoption at this point.
“I think someone who is a bit healthy is not something you have carefree, right?” Located Klarnas CEO and referred to the layoffs. “It's a difficult decision. It makes you cry. I cried.”
Siemiatkowski, however, stood in his decision to relieve the workers: “I had the feeling that I had committed my voters, all of these stakeholders, the company, and I think it was a necessary decision at that time.”
The way to the IPO
Now Klarnas CEO is standing in front of his largest test da business so far, which he co-founded two decades ago with the public.
“IPOs are risky for companies because the share prices can fluctuate quickly,” said Nalin Patel, director of EMEA Private Capital Research at PitchBook, compared to CNBC via e -Mail. “You can also be expensive and lengthy with investment banks.”
Klarna submitted his brochure on the New York stock exchange in the early this month. The company has not yet determined a date that is on the stock exchange, and it has no shares.
If it is successful, the result could catapult the net assets of Siemiatkowski and other shareholders, including Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake, Mubadala Investment Company and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Sequoia is Klaras of individual shareholders with a share of 22%. Siemiatkowski is the second largest that has 7% of the business.
A positive IPO result would also increase the value of the Klarna employees and possibly increase morality for the company after a few turbulent years.
“It is a residual amount between the fair value for existing investors who want to exploit, and new investors who are aiming for a share of Klarna at a fair price. Overvalued the company could lead to the evaluation to decrease in the future. During the undervaluation, this can mean that money was left on the table,” said Patel, “said Patel.