Sebastian Siemiatkowski (also spelled as Sebastian Siemiątkowski) (born in 1981) is a Swedish entrepreneur and co-founder of the company

Klarna Klarna Bank AB, commonly referred to as Klarna, is a Swedish fintech company that provides online financial services such as payments for online storefronts and direct payments along with post-purchase payments. The company has more than 4,000 ...

Early life

Siemiatkowski's parents moved to Uppsala from Poland in the 1980s. He was born in Sweden but his older sister was born in Poland. Siemiatkowski considers himself as a second generation immigrant. His early influences were

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and founder of IKEA. Siemiatkowski credits the Swedish digital policy of subsidizing the ownership of computers for his success because it allowed his family to acquire their first computer.

Education and career

Siemiatkowski holds a master's degree from the Stockholm School of Economics. He started building Klarna at age 23 and co-founded the company in 2005. Siemiatkowski had met one of his co-founders when working at

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. He owns about 7% of the company, which made him a billionaire, although after Klarna experienced difficulties its lower valuation meant that in 2023 Siemiatkowski no longer counted among billionaires.

Controversy

In May 2019 Siemiatkowski was summoned to the

Swedish Ministry of Finance The Ministry of Finance ( sv, Finansdepartementet) is a Swedish government ministry responsible for matters relating to economic policy, the central government budget, taxes, banking, security and insurance, international economic work, central, ...

to answer questions regarding perceived issues with Klarnas management of identity theft and the debts of customers. In 2022, as Klarna was experiencing financial difficulty, Siemiatkowski posted a list of employees who were recently dismissed by the company. This unusual course of action was considered as tone deaf by commentators. The Swedish Financial Sector Union expressed regret to have learnt about the job cuts from the media rather than being consulted beforehand.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siemiatkowski, Sebastian Living people 1981 births Stockholm School of Economics alumni 21st-century Swedish people Swedish people of Polish descent