SEBASTIAN SIEMIATKOWSKI
KLARNA
DIGITAL ASSETS
That stance appears to have shifted as blockchain infrastructure has matured and regulatory frameworks have taken shape.
“ With 114 million customers and US $ 118bn in annual GMV, Klarna has the scale to change payments globally: with Klarna’ s scale and Tempo’ s infrastructure, we can challenge old networks and make payments faster and cheaper for everyone,” Sebastian says.
“ Crypto is finally at a stage where it is fast, low-cost, secure and built for scale.” Sebastian says.
Klarna operates across 26 markets, offering instalment payment options that let consumers split purchases into smaller payments over time. The company competes with Affirm, Afterpay and PayPal in the buynow-pay-later sector, which has grown as an alternative to credit cards for managing purchases.
Stripe and Klarna deepen payments partnership KlarnaUSD runs on Open Issuance, the stablecoin platform built by Bridge after Stripe acquired the company. The system lets Klarna issue dollar-denominated tokens that hold a fixed exchange rate with US currency. The full mainnet launch is scheduled for 2026, after Klarna completes its current testing phase.
Tempo gives Klarna early access to its infrastructure, which means the buy-now-pay-later provider can test transaction speeds, costs and security without exposing the system to live consumer transactions.
SEBASTIAN SIEMIATKOWSKI
TITLE: CO-FOUNDER AND CEO COMPANY: KLARNA
INDUSTRY: FINTECH / FINANCIAL SERVICES
LOCATION: SWEDEN
Sebastian is a Swedish entrepreneur who co-founded Klarna in 2005 at age 23 after meeting Co-founder Niklas Adalberth while working at Burger King, transforming the company into Europe’ s largest buy-now-pay-later provider.
KLARNA
HEADQUARTERS: SWEDEN NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 3,000 NUMBER OF COUNTRIES: 26
60 February 2026