Niklas Adalberth

Niklas Adalberth served as Klarna's Deputy CEO and Chief Strategy Officer during its formative years, playing a critical role in securing the early venture capital funding that kept the company alive during the 2008 financial crisis. His specific contribution was building the financial models and investor narratives that convinced Sequoia Capital and other top-tier firms to back an unproven Swedish payments startup, establishing the capital foundation that allowed Klarna to scale across Europe.

Niklas Adalberth co-founded Klarna in 2005 alongside Sebastian Siemiatkowski and Victor Jacobsson, serving as the company's Deputy CEO and driving its early international expansion into Germany and the United Kingdom. After leaving Klarna in 2016, Adalberth founded Norrsken Foundation, the world's largest foundation dedicated to supporting impact-driven entrepreneurs, leveraging the massive wealth generated from his Klarna stock options. His tenure at Klarna was marked by a relentless focus on regulatory compliance and banking partnerships, recognizing early that the company would eventually need to operate as a licensed financial institution to survive long-term. Adalberth's legacy at Klarna is defined by his ability to bridge the gap between aggressive Silicon Valley-style growth tactics and the conservative, risk-averse nature of European financial regulation.