After 20 years at the helm, Klarna's CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski is about to face his biggest test yet

cnbc.com:

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.

Siemiatkowski, 43, co-founded Klarna in 2005 with fellow Swedish entrepreneurs Niklas Adalberth and Victor Jacobsson with the aim of taking on traditional banks and credit card firms with a more user-friendly online payments experience.

Today, Klarna is synonymous with «buy now, pay later» — a method of payment that allows people to buy things and either defer payment until the end of the month or pay off their purchases over a series of equal, interest-free monthly installments.

But while Siemiatkowski has grown Klarna into a fintech powerhouse, his entrepreneurial journey hasn't been without its challenges — from facing rising competition from rivals such as PayPal, Affirm and Block's Afterpay, to an 85% valuation plunge.

Nevertheless, Siemiatkowski hasn't taken those challenges lying down and the outspoken co-founder isn't shy to challenge criticisms in the run up to an IPO that could value it at $15 billion.

In October 2024, CNBC met with Siamiatkowski during a visit the Swedish entrepreneur made to London. For a businessman who's faced a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs over his two-year CEO tenure, Klarna's chief has a calm air to him.

«Independently of all the cycles and everything we've gone through with the company, at any point in time I ask myself, do I still think that Klarna can become the next Google in size, that we can become a hundreds of billions dollar market company, or a trillion dollars,» Siemiatkowski told CNBC. «I still am crazy enough to think that's achievable.»

Once a pandemic-era darling valued at