Klarna Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Sebastian Siemiatkowski didn’t sell any shares in his company’s blockbuster IPO this week — but he still managed to use the listing to consolidate his control over the company.
Ahead of the offering, the 43-year-old founder pledged Klarna shares as collateral to secure a $112 million loan, according to a person familiar with the matter. The lender SEB AB provided the funding last month, with Siemiatkowski pledging a roughly $980 million stake in exchange as collateral, based on Klarna’s IPO price and regulatory filings.
After securing the financing at a low loan-to-value ratio of 10%, he used the proceeds from the loan to buy out another investor in a special purpose vehicle that owns shares of Klarna, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing non-public information. While Siemiatkowski already controlled the special purpose vehicle, the deal allowed him to further increase his economic interest in the company, the person said.
That bet is already paying off. Siemiatkowski’s Klarna stake has risen more than $65 million in value since the company began trading Wednesday, adding to the equity buffering his share pledge, according to Bloomberg calculations. He now holds a stake worth more than $1 billion even after Klarna’s shares fell 6.7% on Thursday, reversing part of an almost 15% surge the previous day.
“I’m a big believer in the company,” Siemiatkowski said in an interview. “I’ve signed up for this long term.”
A spokesperson for Klarna declined to comment on Siemiatkowski’s borrowing.
The size of Siemiatkowski’s stake in Klarna has long been a source of simmering tension inside the company.
In the lead up to the IPO, he repeatedly clashed with his estranged co-founder Victor Jacobsson. Throughout 2024, the two argued over governance, including how the company would list and how much control Siemiatkowski would ultimately have in a publicly-traded Klarna.
Just three weeks before Klarna first filed to go public in 2024, the firm’s shareholders voted to oust one of the company’s board members, Mikael Walther, after he challenged some governance decisions. Walther had long represented the interests of Jacobsson on the board.
The SEB transaction offers a glimpse at how the rich can leverage their assets and the perks banks offer ultra-wealthy clients. While Siemiatkowski is doubling down on Klarna, pledging stock typically helps executives diversify their wealth and boost liquidity without selling part of their major assets.
Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison has put up company shares to fund a lavish lifestyle that includes trophy properties, America’s Cup sailing teams and the Indian Wells tennis facility in California. Mat Ishbia, owner of the Phoenix Suns, pledged more than half of mortgage giant UWM Holdings Corp.’s outstanding stock in 2023 to secure loans before buying the NBA team for a then-record $4 billion.
Lending against individual stocks or a portfolio of listed holdings is often easier and quicker for banks to process as the value of the collateral is more readily verifiable than less liquid assets such as real estate, art or superyachts. But it can also result in faster demands for extra collateral to cover borrowing costs if the pledge asset’s valuation declines.
“Many years back, I sold some” Klarna stock, Siemiatkowski said. “So I can afford a nice house with my wife and we can go on some nice vacations.”
After this week’s offering, Sequoia Capital is expected to have about 22% of the voting power, regulatory filings show. Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen’s Heartland A/S is set to have around 8.9%, Jacobsson would have around 8.8% of the votes and Siemiatkowski would have 7.4%.
Klarna and its backers ultimately raised $1.37 billion in the listing this week, which saw surging investor demand. Povlsen, CEO of Danish clothing retailer Bestseller, was among the biggest winners from the IPO with his family office notching gains of more than 600% from its investment in Klarna almost a decade ago. He has a net worth of $6.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Siemiatkowski isn’t expecting much to change for Klarna as it begins life as a public company. The firm was already providing investors with quarterly updates on its results and it’s faced heavy regulatory scrutiny as its business has grown around the world.
Founded in Stockholm, Klarna rose to prominence as a provider of so-called buy-now, pay-later financing, which grew in popularity during a pandemic-era boom in online shopping. More recently, though, the fintech has been making a push into offering other banking products like savings, checking accounts and credit cards.
Speaking from his company’s offices in New York on Tuesday, Siemiatkowski was relaxed about the events ahead. While the IPO looked to be going well, the executive was more excited about a recent trip to Bentonville, Arkansas that he’d taken to visit the grave of Sam Walton, the founder of retail giant Walmart Inc.
Klarna has been cozying up to Walmart this year after the retailer made the company’s fast-credit options available to its shoppers and a fintech backed by Walmart took a stake in Klarna.
“Visiting the grave of Sam Walton and just reflecting on the fact that this kid from Sweden was just about to sign a deal with the largest retailer in the world,” Siemiatkowski recalled. “On an emotional level, unfortunately have to say that beats the IPO.”
On Wednesday, Siemiatkowski live streamed his morning from the New York Stock Exchange using his Meta Platforms Inc. smart glasses, giving viewers a birds eye view as he rang the bell on the trading floor flanked by his top deputies and Michael Moritz, Klarna’s chairman. He was also donning a baseball cap with the words “The Last Blockbuster.”
Blockbuster was once the largest video rental chain in the country. But as more consumers turned to streaming services in recent years, the company collapsed. There’s now just one Blockbuster left, located in Bend, Oregon.
Siemiatkowski’s cap retails for $26 on that store’s website, which doesn’t take Klarna.
© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.
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