Klarna CEO explains the plan to become a Super application with artificial intelligence

Sebastian Simiakovsky, CEO of Clarna, speaks at the Fintech event in London on Monday, April 4, 2022.

Chris Ratcliffe Bloomberg via Getti Ims

Klarna CEO is so optimistic about artificial intelligence that he sees that he is changing the way Fintech’s 100 million user every day.

On Wednesday, Clarena – a leader in the famous payment method “Buy Now, Pay Fore” (BNPL) – announces the launch of mobile phone plans in the United States via partnership with emerging vehicles for telecommunications services. This step follows the competitive FinTecs and N26, which made similar shows. KLARNA plans come with unlimited data, calls and texts and will cost $ 40 per month.

The new Telco is in line with the vision of the CEO of Siemiatkowski to make Klarna more than a comprehensive financial “super application” that can provide services outside the world of traditional financing.

It is not the first attempt of the company. Previously, Klarna tried to make itself closer to the “Super” – similar to Ant Group alipay and Tinetnet WeChat Pay – Providing additional services through multiple different buttons. However, it ended as “confusing the customer”, however, Simiakovsky told CNBC in an interview.

However, Klarna President emphasized that the AI part can play it as well as to diversify his services and become known for more than one BNPL offer.

“I think this new artificial intelligence world, there is a better opportunity to serve customers who have different services, then builds a kind of expression of these services and visualizes them more than that historically,” said Simiakovsky.

“With artificial intelligence, you can strip and adopt the experience much more for the specific user you are dealing with,” he added.

Highly popular applications in China and in other parts of Asia. They are supposed to serve as one store for all your mobile needs-for example, with taxis and requesting food in the same place as payment services and messages.

However, while super applications flourished in Asia, the adoption in Western markets was Slow down due to a number of reasons.

“A huge opportunity”

Siemiatkowski says he spends a lot of his time focusing on artificial intelligence.

“There is an enormous opportunity for that – but it is just making it work,” he said. “Everyone who uses it knows that he can spit some exciting things, but you need to make sure they work every time.”

To move forward, the president of Klarna believes that the platform has become more than a “digital financial assistant” to meet the daily banking needs of users.

“If we have some information that indicates that you increase your subscription to your transportation company, your data or anything else,” says Siemiatkowski

By admitting that Klarna’s previous attempt to become a great application, Siemiatkowski says that technology was not “mature” enough enough at the time.

“In the end, North Star for all financial products – especially high -tech companies – is an attempt to be the financial advisor in your pocket,” Simon Taylor, Sardine.ai, told CNBC. “This private banker becomes like experience, but it is presented by the brand is the superior knowledge of your financial life, and this is what it seems to” own the customer “in the era of artificial intelligence.”

Taylor added that although many companies still discover how to use artificial intelligence, “you have companies like Klana Building in public places and try to get their market share for a future that may not be built yet.”

clear I mentioned a loss of 99 million dollars For the quarter that ended in March, noting one time costs related to depreciation and stocks based on stock and restructuring.

The problem of perception

However, Clarena has a problem depicting to overcome it. In the United States, the company has become synonymous with the way “Buy Now, pay later” (BNPL), which allows consumers to pay requests in monthly premiums-is usually beneficial.

On the contrary, European consumers realize that they can use Klana to store their deposits and pay the costs of things in one, as well as through the credit plan, according to Siemiatkowski.

He also expressed his frustration with “this type of memes that we enter in the United States when the matter is as if it was,” Oh, Klasa was launched Doordash … it is a sign of the macroeconomic environment, “referring to a Connect the company that I announced with the DooDash Food Delivery application Earlier this year, a violent reaction was met online.

Simiakovsky said that this type of reaction will not happen in the German or north markets, as Clarna works more like the PayPal online payment system.

He sees a future in which Klarna works as a more comprehensive financial ecosystem with additional services such as stock features in stocks and cryptocurrencies-which he adds, “not far from that.”

He said, “Giving people the ability to invest in both shares and encryption is what has become part of a standard part of the new bank offers,” while stressing that he does not want to compete with the famous American stock trading application Robinhood.

When will our entry into public subscription?

clear A temporary plan to stop the public in AprilAfter US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping tariff for dozens of countries.

Siemiatkowski said that Klarna has already achieved what he started to be ready for this teacher – that is, building a brand in the United States

“The United States is now our largest market by a number of users. It is a profitable market for us,” he said. “These things have been accomplished.”

Whether the company is doing or not exposed to the public, Klarna’s work strategy is still the same.

“This is just a healthy way to pay liquidity for our shareholders, as well as giving the company more ways to finance itself, if it wants to do so, and … to show that this is a firm company,” said Simiakovsky.

He watches: Why does the United States not have “Super Applications”