Klarna Hopes to Avoid Fate of Fellow Swedish Success Stories

Sweden has come the second biggest unicorn factory per capita in the world behind Silicon Valley; previous unicorns are now almost all controlled from outside of Sweden and Klarna is hoping to avoid that same fate; companies are either operating in places like New York or Asia and some were sold to bigger companies in their markets; Co-Founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski tells the FT, “The most important thing is, as Ingvar Kamprad [the founder of Ikea], said: most things are still not done. There is this massive industry — retail banking — that hasn’t put customers first. This is almost an unlimited addressable market.”; Klarna has built itself into one of the most trusted companies in Sweden, even more so than any of the banks; the company said they are as close to an IPO as they ever have been and believe that could be next on their list. Source.