New York - December 1 2020 – (Klarna Bank AB), Klarna the leading global payments provider and shopping service, is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Moritz, partner at Sequoia Capital, as the Chairman of the Klarna Board of Directors and the appointment of three new members to the board: Omid R. Kordestani, former executive Chairman of Twitter,  Lise Kaae of Bestseller Group, and Sarah Smith, a senior advisor at Goldman Sachs. Current Chairman Jon Kamaluddin and board member Sarah McPhee will resign from their positions on the board.  

These appointments come at a time of significant momentum for the company. Klarna, which offers consumers an easier and more convenient way to shop, pay and bank, continues to drive rapid adoption and loyalty. More than 21 million new consumers have joined Klarna since the start of 2020 and the company continues to grow its global network of 200,000 retail partners including H&M, Macys, Etsy, IKEA, Sephora, Expedia Group, Charlotte Tilbury, The North Face, Samsung, Nike and AliExpress. Equally, the Klarna app, a direct-to-consumer end-to-end shopping platform that allows consumers to shop and pay with Klarna at any online brand or store, is strongly resonating withmore than 1 million downloads in the US alone in November and often occupying the number one spot among the most popular shopping apps in the US, ahead of Amazon, Walmart and Target. 

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and co-founder: “I am humbled to welcome an exceptional group of executives to the Klarna Board and the longstanding commitment of Sequoia Capital and Sequoia Partner, Michael Moritz, to the company. Sequoia has been the principal shareholder and the key early backer of many of the world’s contemporary companies including Airbnb, DoorDash, Unity and WhatsApp. Their fifty-year heritage of participating as long-term investors in companies that have revolutionized finance, technology, retail and banking will be of tremendous value, especially at a time when the business is accelerating at such a rapid pace. We are at a true inflection point as consumers are actively turning away from inferior services to those that better meet their needs and the Klarna team is looking forward to working closely together with the board on our mission to become the world’s favourite way to shop and bank. I equally would like to express my thanks to both Jon Kamaluddin and Sarah McPhee for their great collaboration and longstanding commitment to the Board over the past years.”
 

• Michael Moritz is a partner at Sequoia Capital and will assume chairmanship of the Klarna board. Michael has served on the Klarna board since 2010 when Sequoia became one of the company's earliest investors. Michael joined Sequoia in 1986 and has served as Sequoia’s board member in companies such as Google, LinkedIn, PayPal, Yahoo, Kayak, Instacart, Strava and Stripe.

 

• Lise Kaae is currently the CEO of HeartLand A/S, the investment entity of the Bestseller Group, the global retail group and currently sits on the firm’s board of Directors. Prior to her appointment at Heartland A/S, Lise was the CFO of the Bestseller Group. Lise was previously on the board of Directors at Handelsbanken (2015-2020).

 

• Omid Kordestani is the former executive Chairman of Twitter and currently sits on their board of directors. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer for Google Inc; prior to that, he served as Google’s Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development for ten years. Omid has served on the board of Vodafone and was an executive at the early internet pioneer Netscape Communications Corporation.

 

• Sarah Smith is a former member of the Management Committee of Goldman Sachs where she served as Chief Compliance Officer, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer.  She is currently a Senior Advisor at the firm. Sarah was recently appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation, the parent organization of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), and she previously served on the US Treasury Department’s Commission on the Auditing Industry. 

 

The Klarna Board will then comprise:

• Michael Moritz (Chairman of the Board)
• Sebastian Siemiatkowski (CEO and Board member)
• Lise Kaae
• Omid Kordestani 
• Sarah Smith
• Mikael Walther
• Andrew Young

***************************************

About Klarna

We make shopping smoooth. Klarna’s offering to consumers and retailers include payments, social shopping, and personal finances. Over 200,000 retail partners, including H&M, Macys IKEA, Expedia Group, The North Face, Samsung, Etsy, ASOS, Peloton,  Ralph Lauren, Abercrombie & Fitch, Nike and AliExpress have enabled Klarna’s innovative shopping experience online and in-store. Klarna is the most highly valued private fintech in Europe with a valuation of $10.65 billion, and is one of the largest private fintechs globally. Klarna was founded in 2005, has over 3,500 employees and is active in 17 countries. Klarna has been backed by Sequoia Capital since 2010 and more recently, Dragoneer, Ant Group, Silver Lake, Permira, Bestseller Group, Permira, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Visa, Atomico, HMI Capital, TCV, Merian Chrysalis Investment Company Limited, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock amongst others. Klarna is ranked number five on the 2020 CNBC Disruptor 50 list. For more information, visit klarna.com.

 

Contact: Klarna

Aoife Houlihan

Press@klarna.com or Aoife.Houlihan@klarna.com 

+46 (0) 72855 8047