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.
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.
-
Revealed: UK’s biggest ISAs stand at more than £11.6 million each
The top 25 ISAs are worth an average of £11,660,000 each, according to HMRC data - bigger than the country’s largest pension pot. We uncover the secrets of the ISA millionaires.
By Ruth Emery Published
-
Copycat banking websites on the rise - how to spot one
Over 2,000 banking copycat websites were reported as phishing scams in 2023, according to Which? But how do you know if the banking site you're about to use is real?
By Oojal Dhanjal Published
-
Should your business invest in a VoIP phone service?
Here's what you need to know about VOIP (voice over IP) services before landlines go digital in 2025.
By David Prosser Published
-
The end of China’s boom
Like the US, China too got fat on fake money. Now, China's doom is not far away.
By Bill Bonner Published
-
The many frauds of Dozy Mmobuosi, failed Sheffield United owner
Profile Dozy Mmobuosi was a big-hitter with a fintech empire when he stepped in to rescue a failing Yorkshire football club. But he was not quite the saviour he seemed.
By Jane Lewis Published
-
What is the future of Royal Mail in the UK?
With fewer of us sending letters and parcels, the Royal Mail is finding dealing with the nation’s post is an increasingly unprofitable and costly business.
By Simon Wilson Published
-
What's the secret of Manolo Blahnik's success?
Fashion maestro Manolo Blahnik shows little sign of slowing down at 81, and his company notched up a record financial year in 2022. What is the secret of his success?
By Jane Lewis Published
-
Michelle Mone's "tough year of pain"
Michelle Mone liked to portray herself as a working-class heroine who worked her way to the top through grit and determination. But her pedestal is built on sand.
By Jane Lewis Published
-
Trevor Milton, the Elon Musk wannabe, is jailed for fraud
The former CEO of Nikola, Trevor Milton, has been found guilty of lying about the development of the company's electric trucks.
By Jane Lewis Published
-
Directors should think twice before waiving limited liability
Should small-business directors ever provide a personal guarantee in return for bank finance?
By David Prosser Published