- Klarna made its New York Stock Exchange debut this week, sending its market cap soaring to $15 billion—propelling around 40 staffers to millionaire status overnight, with its executive team gaining the most from the IPO. It’s not the first time Klarna’s success has created ultrarich employees—at least 115 of its workers have hit seven-figure net worths since 2021. And staffers at other tech companies, including Nvidia, Canva, and Palantir, who invested early have also made it into the exclusive wealth club.
Many might think that only savvy investors, pioneering founders, and rising CEOs become millionaires overnight—but employees are reaping seven-figure net worths from the successes of their companies, too. Three dozen lucky Klarna staffers just joined the ultrarich club thanks to its recent stock windfall.
Klarna made its New York stock market trading debut this week, with shares skyrocketing after the fintech company and its backers raised $1.37 billion in an initial public offering (IPO). The business’s shares shot up as much as 43% on Wednesday, opening at $52 a share and closing at around $45.82 each, well above the IPO price of $40 ahead of the listing. This shot up Klarna’s market cap to a whopping $17 billion—and it’s estimated that the stock surge catapulted more than 40 current and former Klarna staffers up into the millionaires’ club, thanks to its employee stock perks.
Of course, the fintech company’s cofounders, Sebastian Siemiatkowski and Victor Jacobsson, had the most to gain from the debut. Despite leaving the company in 2012, Jacobsson still held on to 31.4 million shares valued at $1.1 billion at the time of the IPO—and will reportedly sell 2.5% of them.
Meanwhile, CEO Siemiatkowski owns 25.6 million shares with a value of $920 million. And dozens of other staffers benefited as well; there are 37 former and current Klarna employees who now hold shares worth more than $1 million, according to an analysis from startup publication Sifted.
Klarna declined Fortune’s request for comment.
Klarna executives had the most to gain among the new staffed millionaires
Aside from the cofounders, many of the Swedish fintech company’s executive team had the most to gain thanks to their enviable stock portfolios.
For example, Klarna’s chief product and design officer, David Fock, owns more than 600,000 shares worth a total of $21.6 million—and at the IPO, he plans to sell almost 40% of his stock, according to Sifted reporting.
Meanwhile Niclas Neglén, the company’s chief financial officer, holds around 280,000 shares worth $10 million and plans to sell 8%. And chief marketing officer David Sandström, who owns about 290,000 shares valued at $10.4 million, seeks to offload 30%.
Wednesday’s success is not even the first time Klarna’s surging stock has created a new cohort of millionaires.
Back in 2021, about 75 current and former company employees made it to the elusive seven-figure club, according to Sifted. The fintech company had secured a $45.6 billion valuation in June that year, crowning Klarna as Europe’s top private startup at the time.
Employees who owned as little as a fraction of a percent of a share, as low as 0.0022%, were considered bona fide millionaires.
Klarna isn’t the only company minting billionaires—Nvidia and Canva employees also enjoyed a wealth surge
Today, it’s not just founders who are set up to get rich from the tech boom—even everyday workers who invest early in promising startups can reap wealth.
Like Klarna, $4 trillion tech company Nvidia also made many of its 36,000 employees millionaires after enjoying a 3,000% stock surge since the start of 2019. Investing.com financial analyst Jesse Cohen shared a survey estimating that 76% to 78% of the company’s staffers had hit seven figures, with approximately half boasting a net worth of more than $25 million.
And CEO Jensen Huang took it up a notch this year when he revealed that he has created more billionaires on his team than any other leader in the world.
Canva has also created new millionaires after the tech company launched an employee share sale which valued the business at $42 billion this August. Cliff Obrecht, Canva’s chief operating officer, said in an email to staffers that current and former staffers who are eligible would be able to sell up to $3 million worth of shares at a price of $1,646.14 each.
Founding members and employees from $198 billion software giant Palantir are raking it in as well. Most recently, CTO Shyam Sankar became the fifth Palantir staffer to become a billionaire after its stock skyrocketed by more than $550 million over the past year.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman also pledged to send the net worth of his employees soaring with major bonuses this August. The CEO said he will deliver a “special one-time reward” to researchers and software engineers across some of the company’s departments including engineering, scaling, and safety, according to reporting from The Verge.
The biggest bonuses will be in the mid-single-digit millions for top talent, while most are expected to be awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars. About a third of OpenAI’s workforce, around 1,000 workers, qualify for the envy-inducing payments.
