Klarna -CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski is faced with the largest test: IPO

London – After 20 years within the role of CEO by Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski is about to take his hardest test to this point, because 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 over traditional banks and bank card firms with a more user-friendly online payment experience.

Today Klarna is synonymous with “Now, now, pay, pay later”-a payment method with which individuals buy things and either postpone the payment by the top of the month or will pay off their purchases over numerous the identical, interest-free monthly installments.

But while Siemiatkowski Klarna grew right into a FinTech power package, his entrepreneurial journey was not without challenges – from increasing competition from competitors reminiscent of PayPalPresent Confirm And blockAfterpay for an 85% rating leap.

Nevertheless, Siemiatkowski didn’t bring these challenges in harmony, and the pronounced co-founder will not be shy to challenge criticisms within the run-up to an IPO that would estimate it with $ 15 billion.

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 in comparison with his two-year CEO office, Klarnas boss has a quiet air for him.

“Regardless of all cycles and every little thing we went through with the corporate 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 within the Pandemie era price $ 46 billion in a funding round in 2022, Klarna rose to 85% to $ 6.7 billion as increasing inflation and rates of interest in 2022, which bowed to research within the event of high-growth technology firms.

But the corporate tried to rebuild this value in the next years.

Klarna deserves money mainly with the fees that dealers calculate for the availability of his payment services along with the income from interest -bearing financing plans and promoting revenues.

In his IPO registration opened open financial data show that Klarna recorded sales of $ 2.8 billion last 12 months, a rise of 24% in comparison with the previous 12 months and a net profit of $ 21 million in comparison with a net lack of $ 24 in 2023.

After the beginning of the generative KI chatt of Openai in November 2022, Siemiatkowski Klarna's Focus turned to taking the technology and particularly in a way that would reduce the prices and improve the corporate's profitability.

The strategy of Siemiatkowski and his comments on KI also attracted controversy.

In 2023, Klarna imposed freezing in setting to tighten the prices. The following 12 months, the corporate announced that its AI Chatbot did the work of 700 full-time customer support jobs.

Klarna's CEO then said in August that its company could reduce its overall workforce from 5,000 to three,800.

“Simply no attitude … the company is getting smaller,” he told Reuters News Agency and added that jobs disappear as a consequence of wear and never as a consequence of layoffs.

Asked by CNBC about his views to Ki and the angered it causedSiemiatkowski suggested that he was “apologized” and reflected comments from Mark Zuckerberg in regards to the Meta CEOs “, which was reproduced by Mark Zuckerberg.”20-year error“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’s going to be latest 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.

Siemiatkowski is not any stranger to defend his company in response to criticisms, especially whether it is challenged via Klarne's business model to supply short-term financing for all possible things from clothing to online overnight.

Last week Klarna announced an impotence with Doorash to supply 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 posted a meme Show the private finance expert Dave Ramsey with the caption: “What do you mean that you have $ 11,000 in 'Doorash debt'?”

Siemiatkowski to X In order to defend the move and say that Klarna “offers many payment methods”, including the opportunity of paying completely immediately or postponing payment by the top of the month along with 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 bank cards and “extremely recession -proof” after the corporate released 10% of its workforce.

While Klarna is approaching his stock exchange debut, investors will probably examine his track record and whether he remains to be the fitting person to maintain the corporate in the long run.

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 corporate 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 throughout 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.”

Siemiatkowski admits that the development of Klarna was not all the time rosy.

When CEO, based on the best challenge with which he was ever made as CEO, Siemiatkowski said that 10% of the Klarna workforce in 2022 was essentially 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.

“But unfortunately it will influence the smaller group, which randomly accounts for about 10% of our employees.”

Like other technology firms, Klarna grew significantly over the Covid 19 pandemic. In 2020, the corporate increased the gross goods volume or the entire value of all sales processed via its platform 46% in comparison with the previous 12 months, $ 53 billion.

The company also has lots of of latest employees on board on board to the prospect of capitalization and expansion of the consequences 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, nonetheless, stood in his decision to alleviate the employees: “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.”

Now Klarnas CEO is standing in front of his largest test da business to this point, which he co-founded twenty years ago with the general public.

“IPOs are risky for companies because the share prices can fluctuate quickly,” said Nalin Patel, director of EMEA Private Capital Research at PitchBook, in comparison with CNBC via e -Mail. “You can also be expensive and lengthy with investment banks.”

Klarna submitted his brochure on the New York stock exchange within the early this month. The company has not yet determined a date that’s on the stock exchange, and it has no shares.

If it’s successful, the result could catapult the web 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 twenty-two%. Siemiatkowski is the second largest that has 7% of the business.

A positive IPO result would also increase the worth of the Klarna employees and possibly increase morality for the corporate after a couple of 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.