A$AP Rocky has become an investor in the Swedish financial technology company Klarna and took over CEO duties for the day on Tuesday, June 1, 2021, to commemorate the occasion. According to Forbes, Klarna is Europe’s biggest privately held fintech company with 4,000 employees and a $31 billion valuation. The company offers customers the ability to make purchases and pay later, making money by charging merchants to utilize Klarna’s payment technology.
“ASAP Rocky defies categorization; a musician, actor, philanthropist, an opinion leader in style and fundamentally someone who understands what the public wants from so many vantage points,” Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Klarna co-founder and CEO, said in a statement to Complex. “He challenges the status quo each day. As the consumer experience in retail now demands discovery, curation and sustainability, we at Klarna have a lot to learn from him. Besides, after 16 years since founding Klarna, I think I deserve a day off,” Siemiatkowski joked.
During A$AP Rocky’s one-day tenure, the Harlem rapper is curating exclusive content on the Klarna app focused on fashion, specifically upcycling and vintage clothing. A$AP Rocky, who is currently dating Rihanna, is also partnering with the company to invest in Klarna’s GiveOne sustainability initiative. He’s pledged one percent of his investment to the Miti Alliance in Kenya, which is working to slow the impact of climate change due to deforestation.
“Klarna is a company that looks ahead and challenges the status quo, which makes partnering with them so appealing to me. I’m excited to begin working with Klarna in a number of ways, including jointly creating a space for people to rediscover style as we emerge from a global fashion hibernation,” the “Fashion Killa” further commented in the statement.
The rapper, born Rakim Mayers, seems to be back in good standards with the Swedish government as well. In 2019, A$AP Rocky was convicted of assault and given a suspended prison sentence and had to pay $1,270 in damages to a victim that got into an altercation with the rapper and his crew. Rocky served over a month in jail in Sweden before his conviction was rendered and he was released.
