Klarna’s Sebastian Siemiatkowski: fintech innovator gunning for the banks
Sebastian Siemiatkowski’s Klarna app allows customers to buy now, pay later, without racking up interest charges. He’s excited about the future. Regulators are nervous.

“The credit-card model is simply unsustainable for consumers,” Klarna’s billionaire founder, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, told investors last month. They clearly agree, says Bloomberg. In a recent funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, the wildly popular “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) app was valued at $46.5bn. One backer, Chrysalis Investments, reckons the fast-expanding Swedish company, which first saw the light of day in 2005, could be worth $125bn in 18 months – more than Europe’s second-largest bank, HSBC.
Modelled on Sweden
Klarna’s appeal to Millennial and Gen Z fashionistas is obvious. “In the past, when I ran out of money, I simply couldn’t shop,” relates one user. No such worries now. Unlike credit-card firms, the Nordic fintech doesn’t charge its 90 million users hefty interest payments and fees; it makes most of its money from retailers, who have embraced the “simple pink-coloured” app with gusto. “Don’t wait until payday hon,” Boohoo urges its youthful customers. “Boohoo accepts Klarna.” No wonder everyone wants a piece of the BNPL action. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s payments platform, Square, recently paid $29bn for Klarna’s Australian rival, Afterpay. The UK contender, Zilch, has raised more than $200m from Goldman Sachs and the venture-capital arm of the Daily Mail & General Trust.
Siemiatkowski, 39, “credits an unlikely backer for his runaway success”, says Reuters: “the Swedish welfare state”, in particular, a late 1990s government policy to put a computer in every home – a transformative move “for low-income families such as mine”, he says. Sweden’s prescient connectivity drive helps explain why its capital Stockholm has become “such rich soil for start-ups”, incubating the likes of Spotify, Skype and Klarna. Siemiatkowski himself began coding on the family computer when he was 16. Born in 1981 to Polish immigrants – his parents were impoverished former academics who put huge emphasis on education – he grew up in Uppsala and was a high achiever at school, prone to devouring Richard Branson’s business books.
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Siemiatkowski paid his dues while studying for a masters at the Stockholm School of Economics, “putting frozen meat onto a conveyor belt” at Burger King, says Forbes. On the other side of the assembly line was Niklas Adalberth. The two became friends and co-founded the startup (originally known as InvoiceMe) with a third student entrepreneur, Victor Jacobsson, in 2005. Investors then didn’t get the concept. “We presented our idea at an innovators’ pitch and they said: ‘Forget about it.’” But soon after Siemiatkowski got the thumbs-up from an observer at the session. “Just go for it. The banks will never understand what happened.” “I’m still on that mission,” he says.
The mission to take the US
Having swept through Europe, Klarna is now aggressively targeting the US market amid talk of a Wall Street float early next year. But its ascent hasn’t been exactly “frictionless”, says Elle magazine. Some charge that Klarna is a “modern-day loan shark” – made all the more dangerous by its innocuous image – enabling addicted young consumers into taking on large amounts of debt. The BNPL market more than trebled in size in 2020 and Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority has called for it to be “brought within regulation” – a move that might cramp the style of Klarna’s jejune users, says Bloomberg, who are becoming relaxed about buying stuff they can’t afford. It’s the insouciance that worries regulators most.
Sign up for MoneyWeek's newsletters
Get the latest financial news, insights and expert analysis from our award-winning MoneyWeek team, to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.
She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.
Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.
She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.
-
When is the “Bed & ISA” deadline? Cut-off dates for major investment platforms
The “Bed & ISA” deadline varies from provider to provider. We share a round-up of the key dates across major investment platforms
By Katie Williams Published
-
Spring Statement: what could Rachel Reeves say about pensions?
The chancellor will deliver her Spring Statement on 26 March. We look at whether there will be any announcements on pensions that could affect savers or retirees
By Ruth Emery Published
-
Kirill Dmitriev: from Wall Street banker to Putin’s emissary to Trumpworld
Profile Kirill Dmitriev is a product of America’s finest institutions and has emerged as the Russian president’s point man in negotiations with Donald Trump
By Jane Lewis Published
-
Aga Khan, spiritual leader and billionaire investor, dies at 88
The Aga Khan was a religious leader to millions of Shia Ismaili Muslims and a billionaire investor with a love of horses. He saw no contradiction in his roles
By Jane Lewis Published
-
Deepseek's Liang Wenfeng: the maths whizz who shook Big Tech
Few people had heard of Liang Wenfeng until the launch of his DeepSeek AI chatbot wiped a trillion dollars off US technology stocks. His pivot to AI was of a piece with his past exploits.
By Jane Lewis Published
-
RedNote: the rise of the new TikTok
RedNote, a Chinese rival to social-media app TikTok, has seen millions of US users flock to it in the wake of the US TikTok ban. That caught the company by surprise. What is RedNote and can its popularity last?
By Jane Lewis Published
-
Australian tycoon Andrew Forrest battles it out with oil giant ExxonMobil
Iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest made billions before committing himself to philanthropy. Now he is preparing for a showdown with ExxonMobil.
By Jane Lewis Published
-
Remembering Sir David McMurtry: Renishaw founder and Concorde engineer
Sir David McMurtry, co-founder of Renishaw, made a unique contribution to Britain. We look back at his legacy
By Jamie Ward Published
-
Low Tuck Kwong: the Indonesian mining billionaire who is benefitting from coal boom
Low Tuck Kwong’s coal business was in deep trouble a decade ago with no future. Now, he is riding the waves of a global coal boom
By Jane Lewis Published
-
David Montgomery's potential new ally as he seeks to buy The Telegraph
Veteran media mogul David Montgomery has seen off a bid for his media group National World. But he now has his eye on The Telegraph
By Jane Lewis Published