$KLAR Klarna Group Tape Reports
Per Ticker.id: $KLAR Klarna Group Tape Reports — 28 podcast mentions across 9 podcasts (30 days), latest 2026-08-26 15:03 UTC.
Yeah, I'm super excited about this conversation. It seems like some of the hottest companies in the world are all coming out of Stockholm. I feel like this is a really basic first question, but Stockholm's ecosystem has had like Spotify and Klarna, but recently these, these AI companies that have been coming out of there. Has something— what changed in the past few years that now suddenly— I mean, again, there's always been incredible companies, but has there something that's changed in the ecosystem in the past, like 5 years?
Dominique Midori-Davis — Equity · From the Spotify Mafia to the Lovable Mafia: inside Stockholm's founder network · 2026-08-26I mean, I think it has matured significantly the last, you know, 4 or 5 years. But I think it has been kind of a long time in the making. And, you know, for just my sort of time here, I feel like I've seen, you know, and had the pleasure to work closely with Niklas Zennström at Skype and then Daniel at Spotify and then invested into companies such as Klarna with Atomico, etc., and seen kind of generations of founders. And I think one thing that strikes me is that it's a small place, you know, Stockholm, you can bump into these people on the street. And it's easy to get hold of them. And I would say majority of them are very generous with their time. They kind of enjoy coaching and meeting up with the next generation founders. So being a small ecosystem, I think is one of the components that makes it so dense and therefore the access to these people. It's fairly easy. So like, it is definitely, I think, a kind of passing of the knowledge into the younger generation. And then maybe a bit of also, we're this tiny country up in the northern part of Scandinavia in Europe. And, you know, maybe to some extent we feel like we've been underestimated. You know, people maybe don't think that a Spotify would have the guts to take on Apple, etc., or Skype to take on the whole kind of industry. So maybe an ounce of being underestimated and being coming from a small place has some portion of it as well. And then I think also just lately, we have had this, you know, incredible growth of very talented, super motivated, hungry and disciplined young founders that have supported each other and also learned from the older generation.
Sophia Benz — Equity · From the Spotify Mafia to the Lovable Mafia: inside Stockholm's founder network · 2026-08-26I think probably both, right? So I lived my 5 years in New York City when I was there launching Spotify. Some of my reflections there was that, you know, people that were starting their own companies, they were so much knife against the throat because if this doesn't succeed, you know, I have no, you know, nothing to rely on. In Sweden, we have the social welfare system, so you can risk a lot and you can start a company. But sometimes people do it while studying, etc. And it feels like you have a bit more cushiony sort of situation. I don't know if that still holds true, but I do feel like people dare to take great risk. And I think Lovable, you know, super big, very bold ambition. Spotify, incredibly bold ambition to go up against those giants. Skype, very bold ambition. Klarna, the same. So I think there's something about kind of daring greatly, dreaming big, being the underdog that has sort of been proven once or twice. And then I think that shapes how people think about going on about building their own businesses. This whole thing, like go big or go home, I feel like resonated quite a lot with some of these young talented founders.
Sophia Benz — Equity · From the Spotify Mafia to the Lovable Mafia: inside Stockholm's founder network · 2026-08-26Yeah, I would say one of the really good places to go and visit if you're here is Stockholm School of Economics. Where they have this incubator where Klarna was founded and sort of incubated in, Legora as well, Boij as well. And I'm on the advisory board of that school and it's incredible to see that track record. I was kind of jokingly saying that, you know, investing into all of these companies would be a fairly healthy investment strategy. So I think that school has the most entrepreneurial density and legacy and history with it. And then of course we have KTH, which is the technological university also based in the city with an amazing robotics division. We have, you know, Stockholm University that has a great law education, etc. So we have some really, really good places. But I also think maybe I'm colored by my own experience, but also having worked at startups is probably the best crash course. So like Anton at Lovable, he used to work at Sauna Labs, which is one of these breakout companies as well. So I think they also go and visit companies, see how it's done, and then, you know, also get inspired to start their own companies. I think we also see a lot of people now kind of leaving Loveable because they also see all of these opportunities for companies that can be built with that technology. So talent hub-wise, I would say like people that are, you know, have worked at Loveable and Agora or seem to be very entrepreneurial driven and keen to start their own companies.
Sophia Benz — Equity · From the Spotify Mafia to the Lovable Mafia: inside Stockholm's founder network · 2026-08-26Yeah, I mean, it will be interesting to see some of these young companies where they go for their IPOs, but I would not be surprised if it's also New York. And I think looking at both Spotify and Klarna, that's what they did. So it feels like it has sort of become a bit of a standard for the ambitious ones. So I think there we also have some work to do.
Sophia Benz — Equity · From the Spotify Mafia to the Lovable Mafia: inside Stockholm's founder network · 2026-08-26Yeah, maybe. But I mentioned to someone the other day, I was visiting this coworking place down in a harbor called Magasin X, which is builders that are doing physical AI. And then I was blown away. You were bumping into like a robot dog and then another manufacturing robot, etc. And I was like, wow, all of this amazing talent that are building things. So yeah, then I was like, oh, maybe it's robotics that we'll be known for. But with the background and having seen Skype, Spotify, Klarna, etc., I think probably it's a combination and maybe the common denominator is that daring to build big from day one, maybe sort of challenging status quo is the thing. I think we have been good at design and user design and UI aesthetics, but who knows, maybe it will be robotics or deep tech. TBD.
Sophia Benz — Equity · From the Spotify Mafia to the Lovable Mafia: inside Stockholm's founder network · 2026-08-26It's fascinating that you included the Klarna CEO because that stock is down 30% for the week. And we just mentioned what's happening to some of the airlines. That's going to be something to watch.
Carl Quintanilla — Squawk on the Street · 10AM Hour: Jefferies Chief Market Strategist, Investing in AI & Manhattan Rents Surge 8/21/26 · 2026-08-21I don't know, Jim. There's Klarna continuing those losses. Guys, I did want to get to a couple of takeover situations. One that we haven't actually talked about in a while, which is the, the creation of a transcontinental rail and questions about whether in fact whether or not ultimately that is going to be approved by the Surface Transportation Board. I'm talking about, of course, Union Pacific's decision— not decision, announcement, of course, of buying Norfolk Southern quite some time ago. But as you know, these deals take a long time to get through the regulatory process. We did get a move from the STB yesterday, which basically said we've accepted your application. Second time they've come back with a new application. And then they said sufficient to resume procedural schedule. We're not saying that we've had a finding on the merits of whether we're going to say yes, but we are establishing this procedural schedule for public comment. This is being taken as a positive. The spread has been pretty wide on this deal. Just to remind people, it is 1 share of Union Pacific common and $88.82 in cash for each share of Norfolk Southern. The spread between what that represents and where Norfolk Southern had been trading has been quite significant. It is tightening today just in terms of at least the feeling, I guess, that this is a positive development, although it was expected. I will say that really what I'm hearing is it's going to come down to the way the White House views this and very much unclear at this point where that's going to be. Of course, as you might imagine, the likes of Burlington Northern not in favor of the transaction and perhaps others as well. I'm hearing there's just not that much visibility right now into what the ask may be from the STB or in anything. And real questions as to whether that momentum that was there initially in terms of it being seen as a national security issue and positive in terms of creating a transcontinental rail, whether that is still there. So did want to just point that out.
David Faber — Squawk on the Street · Yields Fall on Treasury Decision, OpenAI-Anthropic Revenue Race, Moderna Soars 100% 8/19/26 · 2026-08-19