Sebastian Siemiatkowski, chief executive officer and co-founder of Klarna AB, gestures whilst speaking at the Symposium Stockholm ‘Brilliant Minds’ technology and music conference in Stockholm, Sweden, on Thursday, June 9, 2016. Alphabet Inc. Chairman Eric Schmidt said European governments should spend less time “arguing about zero sum games” and trying to protect domestic industries from U.S. technology competitors, and do more to promote entrepreneurs and expand the economy. Photographer: Johan Jeppsson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The fintech world has wondered for years when Klarna, Europe’s most valuable private tech company, will file for a public float. However, a recent Nasdaq move by CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has left a former executive puzzled.

Mikael Wintzell served as Klarna’s deputy chief commercial officer between 2014 and 2015, having served for three and a half years at the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) giant in total, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Go deeper with GlobalData

Data Insights

The gold standard of business intelligence.

Find out more

Related Company Profiles

View all

Since 2016, Wintzell has served as the founder of seed investment firm Wellstreet, which has invested in ventures like banking platform Aura Banking Cloud and digital energy startup Tibber.

Speaking with the Breakit podcast, Wintzell confessed to having been left perplexed by the Klarna CEO’s latest public float plans.

Siemiatkowski and his wife Nina Siemiatkowski revealed earlier this week that they planned to float their private investment company Flat Capital on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market.

Flat Capital owns shares in Klarna, Budbee and Truecaller. With the listing, the company aims to issue new B shares and “give more people the opportunity for exposure to unlisted firms that would otherwise be challenging to access,” according to a press release.

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData
Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

However, Wintzell is still unconvinced about the Klarna boss’ floatation initiative.

“I do welcome the initiative to give more entrepreneurs access to capital,” he told Breakit. “However, I don’t understand why they have to be on the stock exchange. It’s a bit odd. It’s difficult to see how the advantages with a listing would exceed the challenges that being listed would actually entail.”

He then clarified: “You list to access capital and to create liquidity. Is this investment company in need of that? No, not with those owners.”

Klarna achieved a $45.6bn valuation on the back of a $639m SoftBank-led investment round in June, making it Europe’s most valuable privately owned tech company.

But even before that, Siemiatkowski was constantly barraged by questions about when the fintech behemoth would file for an initial public listing (IPO). In August, he said in an interview that while a Klarna float was becoming more and more plausible, an IPO is not in the cards quite yet.

Klarna and other BNPL companies have benefited from the pandemic and the simultaneously surge of online shopping.

The sector is set to grow in the years to come. Recent GlobalData thematic research estimates that the sector will be worth $166bn by 2023.