Sebastian Siemiatkowski

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski bragged on Tuesday that his company’s new OpenAI-powered customer service chatbot was doing the work of 700 people—nearly two years after Klarna laid off about 700 people.Like It or Not, Your Doctor Will Use AI | AI UnlockedIn a post on X, Siemiatkowski called the work of Klarna’s AI assistant a “breakthrough in the practical application of AI!” The CEO explained that in the chatbot’s first four weeks, it had handled about 66% of its customer support or about 2.3 million chats. Klarna…

Sebastian Siemiatkowski is a co-founder and CEO of Klarna, the Sweden-based company that’s one of the world’s biggest providers of buy now, pay later services to customers. Klarna started off in Europe and entered the U.S. market in 2015.Buy now, pay later has become an increasingly popular option for consumers for purchases: its usage is up 10-fold since the pandemic and U.S. regulators see it as potentially a more sustainable way for borrowers to pay for purchases instead of using credit cards.Siemiatkowski spoke to the…

Few private companies benefited more during the pandemic than Klarna Bank AB. Consumers flocked to the specialty lender, which lets shoppers break up payments for things they order online. Klarna’s valuation soared to $46 billion from $5.5 billion in just two years.Times have changed. The loss-making startup has burned through a chunk of the money it raised in recent years and is now seeking fresh funds. Part of the reason it needs more capital is to keep up with more stringent Swedish bank capital requirements, according…

Klarna Bank AB is seeking to raise new funds that could value the fintech giant at almost a third less than the roughly $46 billion valuation it achieved just under a year ago, according to people familiar with the matter, an example of the struggles facing the tech investing world.Klarna specializes in buy-now-pay-later services, a popular type of cash advance that competes with credit cards and lets customers pay for goods and services in installments without paying interest. Klarna makes money by charging merchants who…