The entrepreneur behind a $180 million watch brand quietly invested millions in Swedish payments startup Klarna

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Klarna co-founders Sebastian Siemiatkowski and Niklas Adelberth

Klarna

Klarna cofounders Sebastian Siemiatkowski and Niklas Adelberth.

Filip Tysander, the founder of the Daniel Wellington watch brand, quietly bought millions of pounds worth of shares in payments startup Klarna, according to Swedish tech site Breakit.

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The entrepreneur, who built a $180 million (£148 million) watch empire in less than five years, reportedly bought shares in Klarna that are today worth 53 million kroner (£7 million) through a firm he owns called JFT Holdings.

The investment was spotted by Breakit in a previously undisclosed document.

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Klarna has raised over $290 million (£238 million) and is worth $2.25 billion (£1.85 billion), making it one of Sweden's few billion dollar tech companies.

The company lets customers buy products online by simply entering their email address and postcode. It then effectively extends the buyers a line of credit, buying what they're after on their behalf and then emailing them later to ask them to fill in their card or payment details.

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Last April, the method had proved so successful that in its native Sweden, Klarna was processing 30% of all online purchases there and processed $9 billion (£5.74 billion) worth of transactions globally in 2014. The company has been profitable since its inception.

Other investors in Klarna include Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia and Goldman Sachs.

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