Sebastian Siemiatkowski

Sebastian Siemiatkowski is the CEO and one of Klarna’s three founders. He started Klarna in 2005, together with the two friends Niklas Adalberth and Victor Jacobsson, during a competition at the Stockholm School of Economics, and is now listed as one of Fortune's 40 under 40 and changing the way the world shops.

Siemiatkowski was one of the first to recognize the growing appeal of services that let consumers make installment payments for things they buy online. He founded one such service, Klarna, in his native Sweden in 2005 and has become a leader in this niche of the financial industry—so much so that Elle described him as “the man behind the ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ shopping revolution.” Another publication called Siemiatkowski’s company a “cool lender” wildly popular with Gen Z. Klarna raised $460 million in late 2019, and its founder recently predicted COVID will “permanently change the way we shop.”

The idea for the company was founded during a business idea competition hosted by the Stockholm School of Economics and its partners. Siemiatkowski and his friends managed to go to the final and pitched the idea in front of Sweden’s greatest investors and businessmen. They were rejected by all the ‘dragons’ and lost the final. But they kept their belief of one day becoming a great company and started Klarna anyway. Klarna has quickly expanded to become one of Europe’s leading payment solutions provider, with support from Sequioa Capital and Investment AB Öresund.

Siemiatkowski has a masters degree from the Stockholm School of Economics. Sebastian was together with Niklas and Victor awarded “Ã…rets manliga stjärnskott” by Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year region Stockholm in 2009.