Klarna Group plc KLAR Chief Executive

What Sebastian Siemiatkowski says in public, and what their own SEC filings show they own.

Sebastian Siemiatkowski

Sebastian Siemiatkowski

Co-Founder, CEO & Director · Klarna Group plc

Co-founded Klarna in Stockholm in 2005 as a Stockholm School of Economics student and has run it through a banking licence, a $45.6bn private mark, an 85% markdown and a New York listing. Best known for pushing Klarna from buy-now-pay-later into a credit-card challenger, and for an AI rollout that cut headcount from roughly 6,000 to 3,000 before he publicly reversed part of it.

@klarnaseb
What they own

Ownership

Skin in the game
48/ 100
Level 2Aligned

Siemiatkowski owns 7.5% of Klarna Group plc, worth $411.5M at the last close.

SEC filings
5
Stake 7.5% of the class on the latest 13G 26/35
Founder No career file yet — the founder axis scores zero until one exists 0/15
Tenure Start date not on file — tenure scores zero until it is 0/10
Track record No career file yet — prior companies score zero until one exists 0/15
Direction Net buyer — 692,506 shares bought on the open market in the last year, no sales 15/15
Discipline 2 late Form 4s in 5 filings 7/10

Score = stake band (35) + founder (15) + tenure (10) + track record (15) + 12-month direction (−10…15) + filing discipline (10). Every input links to a filing or to the career file; the bands are ours.

Beneficial stake · 13G 28.6M 7.5% of the class · $411.5M at the Sep 5 close of $14.41
Reported · Forms 3, 4, 5 25.3M Every lot on the person's own filings, as of Aug 26, 2026
Last open-market trade Buy · $9.9M Aug 26, 2026 · 692,506 shares at $14.37 · no 10b5-1 plan
Paper trail 2 late filings Form 4 covering a 2026-06-01 grant or award in Klarna Group plc was filed 2026-06-30, 20 business days later; Section 16 allows two.
Reported Klarna Group plc shares Forms 3, 4 and 5 · as of 2026-08-26
010M20M30M 2026 Aug 26, 2026: buy of 692,506 shares 25.3M

Dots mark the months the activity below moved the line. Hover one for the filing.

How the stake is held
SecurityHeld viaShares
Klarna Group plc Ordinary SharesFlat Capital AB (publ)25,344,322
Reported as of 2026-08-2625,344,322
Why the two headline numbers differ

The 13G cover page counts 28.6M shares — 3.2M more than the Forms 4 report, usually options exercisable within 60 days or shares held through a vehicle the person controls but does not file for. Never add them together.

Held directly
0%
Vehicles
1 trust or entity
Last filing
Aug 28, 2026
Activity · last 12 months 1 events folded from 1 filing lines · Every filing on EDGAR ↗
DateTypeWhat happenedSharesPriceValueNote
Aug 26, 2026 Buy Open-market purchase · Klarna Group plc Ordinary Shares +692,506 $14.37 $9.9M Through Flat Capital AB (publ) · no 10b5-1 plan
Every issuer Sebastian Siemiatkowski files as an insider of
CompanyRoleReportedBeneficial% of class
KLAR Klarna Group plc This page Chief Executive Officer 25M
2026-08-26		 29M 7.5%
KLAR: 3,211,190 shares on the Section 16 filings are additional to the SCHEDULE 13G figure — read the cover page for why.

Reported is every lot on the person's own Forms 3, 4 and 5 — direct and through trusts. Beneficial is the figure stated on the latest Schedule 13D/G cover page, which can exclude shares the person disclaims and include options exercisable within 60 days, so the two are never added together.

Paper trail
  • Late Form 4 covering a 2026-06-01 grant or award in Klarna Group plc was filed 2026-06-30, 20 business days later; Section 16 allows two. Filing ↗
  • Late Form 4 covering a 2026-03-30 grant or award in Klarna Group plc was filed 2026-04-15, 12 business days later; Section 16 allows two. Filing ↗

5 filings under CIK 0002097107 · captured 2026-09-05 · All filings on EDGAR ↗

On the record with shareholders

Earnings calls

  1. Q2 2026 Aug 18, 2026 Siemiatkowski led with the growth ladder Klarna wants to be judged on — volume +18%, revenue +27%, transaction margin dollars +42%, operating costs +16% — and only then handed over the guidance cut, which he attributed to a softer German consumer and FX. He used the call, not the release, to disclose that CFO Niclas Neglén and CMO David Sandström both hand over in early 2027, framing it as "an early heads up, not a goodbye", and said the CFO search is for a New York-based hire because the US is already Klarna's largest market by revenue if not by volume. On product, he argued the network is under-penetrated in its own base: of more than a million merchants accepting Klarna, only about 250,000 offer Fair Financing. Read the call · 5 quotes →
In their own words

Podcasts, interviews & articles

10 recorded appearances

2026

From the frontier: Lessons from Klarna's ambitious AI rollout
Talk Charter Leading with AI Summit · Feb 11, 2026 · 22 min

From the frontier: Lessons from Klarna's ambitious AI rollout

Concedes the AI push went too far — "I had to pay a lot for saying that. People were very angry with me" — and describes the correction: AI supporting humans as VIP treatment, including hiring Klarna's own customers as remote part-time contractors.

Watch or read →

2025

Inside Klarna's IPO CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski
Podcast Sourcery with Molly O'Shea · Sep 12, 2025 · 1h 0m

Inside Klarna's IPO CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski

Recorded at the NYSE: says Klarna was burning about $100m a month and swung to $1-2m of monthly profit within two years, and frames the company as an attack on the $1.2tn US credit-card market rather than a BNPL business.

Watch or read →

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