Klarna Co-Founder Leaving Payments Firm

Just days after billion-dollar Swedish payments company Klarna announced it landed a big U.S. retailer partnership, one of the company’s original founders made his own big announcement.

Niklas Adalberth has stepped down from his position as Klarna’s deputy CEO.

As reported by Business Insider yesterday (Sept. 3), a Swedish publication called Digital confirmed the Klarna staff was made aware of the departure Thursday morning.

“Niklas has made the decision to continue to contribute to Klarna by remaining an active board member and long-term owner, and will step down from his operational responsibilities,” a company spokesperson told Business Insider while confirming the news. “Niklas is a fundamental part of the trio that founded Klarna, which now consists of 1,200 employees on 18 markets serving more than 50,000 merchants. Niklas will focus on social entrepreneurship and the world is lucky to have him.”

With Adalberth’s decision to formally part ways with the company, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski is the only remaining original founder left at Klarna. Former CFO and founder Victor Jacobsson left the company back in 2012, but like Adalberth, maintains a position on the company’s board of directors.

In an interview with Digital, Adalberth explained his desire to pursue new ventures, including nonprofit work.

“I have some ideas that are too exciting to not try. I think I learned a lot about tech and to build a company. [I want to] get that know-how into a world that does not have as much. I think I can do good,” he explained. “I do not want to die with a bag of money in my account and I do not want my children to grow up with a bag of money in their account.

“There will never be a good time to leave. I have always thought ‘two years’ — we’ll just ready this or get over that hump. But now we have a good team in place and a technology platform that has taken the next big step. The U.S. launch is done and we also have new investors.”

Part of that U.S. launch included Klarna securing Overstock.com as its first major retail partner as it brings its commercial operations stateside.

The company will support Overstock’s mobile buying experience, enabling the eCommerce site’s customers to shop from their smartphones and tablets. With the launch, Overstock customers will have the ability to use Klarna Checkout for mobile Web guest purchases, but returning users who have used Klarna before can complete a purchase with one tap, the company confirmed.

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