Sebastian Siemiatkowski News

Klarna Group Plc filed publicly for a US IPO in what could be one of the year’s biggest financial company listings. The Stockholm-founded digital payments company’s revenue climbed 24% last year. Klarna had net income of $21 million on revenue of $2.81 billion for 2024, compared with net loss of $244 million on revenue of $2.28 billion a year earlier, according to its filing Friday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Klarna filed confidentially for the initial public offering in November. Klarna is seeking to raise at least $1 billion in the IPO and is targeting a valuation of more than $15 billion in the listing, Bloomberg News reported. The company and some of its shareholders are selling shares in the offering, the filing shows.

LONDON — After 20 years in the role as Klarna's CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski is about to face his toughest test yet as the financial technology firm prepares for its blockbuster debut in New York.

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The age of artificial intelligence (AI), heralded by the 2022 advent of ChatGPT, has given birth to a peculiar form of conventional wisdom. The reigning corporate orthodoxy insists that AI shall automate menial tasks, freeing the world’s brilliant and creative to do what they do best.

Klarna, a leading fintech company, is making waves after its CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, stated that artificial intelligence (AI) is now capable of performing nearly all tasks that were once handled by human employees. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Siemiatkowski discussed the rapid advancement of AI and its growing role in the workforce, raising important questions about the future of employment. Siemiatkowski revealed that Klarna, known for its «buy now, pay later» services, has not hired any new staff in the past year, leading to a natural reduction in its workforce. The company, which once employed 4,500 people, now has 3,500 employees. This reduction, according to Siemiatkowski, was a result of a typical 20% annual attrition rate seen in tech firms, meaning that about 20% of employees leave every year. Rather than hiring replacements, Klarna chose to let the workforce shrink. “We have a natural attrition like every tech company. People stay for about five years, so 20 per cent leave every year. By not hiring, we are simply shrinking,” he explained. Despite the workforce reduction, Siemiatkowski assured that the current employees’ salaries would not be negatively impacted. He noted that as the company’s salary costs decrease due to fewer employees, the savings could lead to higher pay for those who remain.

A European technology talent brain drain is the biggest risk factor facing Klarna as the Swedish payments company gets closer to its upcoming initial public offering, according to CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski.

Klarna said it posted a profit in the first half of the year, swinging into the black from a loss last year as the buy now, pay later pioneer edges closer toward its hotly anticipated stock market debut.

Financial technology firm Klarna is pushing deeper into banking with its own checking account-like product and a cashback offering that rewards users for shopping via its app.

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Swedish fintech firm Klarna is launching a monthly subscription plan in the U.S. to lock in its heaviest users ahead of an expected initial public offering this year, the company told CNBC.

Sebastian Siemiatkowski is a co-founder and CEO of Klarna, the Sweden-based company that’s one of the world’s biggest providers of buy now, pay later services to customers

Klarna reported its first quarterly operating profit in four years as it attracted more consumers to buy now, pay later loans, giving the firm a boost as it lays the groundwork for an initial public offering.

Klarna Bank reported on Thursday a much smaller six-month operating loss than a year earlier and said it had reached profitability on a monthly basis ahead of target. The January-June operating loss at the privately held (BNPL) fintech, which last made a full-year profit in 2018, was 2.01 billion crowns ($185 million) against a year-earlier loss of 6.17 billion crowns. «We posted a small profit in May,» CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told Reuters. «We feel very confident that we'll be posting a profitable quarter very soon and then eventually also a full profitable year.» Klarna allows shoppers to buy online through its merchant partners and settle their dues in instalments using its «buy now, pay later» (BNPL) service. In May, it said it was on track to reach profitability on a monthly basis in the second half of the year. Last year, business conditions deteriorated as soaring inflation and the war in Ukraine hit consumer confidence, prompting it to cut staff and sending its valuation tumbling. Siemiatkowski said in the interview that Klarna had no need in the foreseeable future to raise more funds. Klarna last raised funds in 2022 at a valuation of $6.7 billion, down around 85% from the $46 billion price tag it attracted in 2021.

Klarna, the Swedish buy now, pay later fintech company, halved its net loss in the first quarter, recording a significant improvement in its bottom line after a major cost-cutting drive.

Klarna saw its valuation slashed by 85% in a new financing round announced Monday, reflecting grim investor sentiment surrounding high-growth tech stocks and «buy now, pay later» lenders.

The chief executive of embattled buy-now-pay-later company Klarna drew criticism for publishing a list of the hundreds of employees he has let go.

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Buy-now-pay-later giant Klarna is to lay off about one in 10 of its employees, as the company battles a worsening economic climate.

Buy now pay later giant Klarna is to lay off about one-in-10 of its employees, as the company fights against a worsening economic climate across the globe.