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Viktor Jacobsson, the reclusive co-founder at the heart of the tussle on Klarna's board, has bought a stake in the company via special purpose vehicles to become one of its largest shareholders ahead of an expected initial public offering.
The exact size of Jacobson's ownership is unclear, in part because he owns shares through various corporate entities. However, his stake is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and may exceed CEO Sebastian Siemiatkovsky's roughly 8 percent stake, according to people familiar with the matter.
Jacobsson co-founded the $6.7 billion Swedish buy-now-pay-later leader Klarna in 2005 alongside current group leader Siemiatkowski. Although he served as the company's CFO in its early years, Jacobson left Klarna in 2012.
However, Jacobson has been among the company's most active investors over the years, using his “right of first refusal” to buy Klarna shares on the secondary market through special purpose vehicles, according to people familiar with the transactions.
He charged other investors in those vehicles fees and carried interest to leverage his rights as a co-founder, according to people familiar with the matter. Siemiatkowski has also strengthened his position in Klarna with a special purpose vehicle.
Jacobson owns about 4 percent of the company directly, but may own more than twice that amount when his indirect holdings are taken into account, people familiar with the matter said.
One person said he had a “very big appetite for buying.”
It is unclear exactly how Jacobson financed those purchases, including the extent of his work with third parties.
The size of Jacobson's stake and influence in the company has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after Klarna's largest investor Sequoia Capital – which holds a 22 per cent stake – failed to oust the venture capital group's former leader Michael Moritz as chairman.
At the heart of the conflict was tension over the influence of some shareholders on Klarna's governance. Special voting rights had become like a “shadow management structure that hindered board capacity,” one person said.
Klarna is setting up a new holding company in the UK as part of plans to simplify its corporate structure and change its headquarters ahead of an expected listing in New York.
Once a company is re-housed, some investors may not have the same special rights under the new shareholder agreements.
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Two issues that have arisen in the board dispute are whether Klarna's co-founders and a few other shareholders will retain special rights to buy shares, and whether Simiatkowski should receive super-voting shares in Klarna after the expected initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. On command. Disagreement.
A Siemiatkowski spokesman said there was no proposal to introduce special rights for certain shareholders or selected groups of shareholders and that the CEO supported the removal of special rights.
Jacobson was one of the first people to see promise in the company when he met Siemiatkovsky at the Stockholm School of Economics. However, Klarna's founders took different paths.
Siemiatkowski is one of the most outspoken advocates of the buy now, pay later industry. Jacobson rarely speaks publicly now, and since leaving the company he has continued his private investments in venture and growth companies. The third co-founder, Niklas Adalberth, offloaded most of his shares years ago to start a foundation.
Klarna and Jacobson declined to comment.
