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We sit down with Lena in Stockholm, where open banking fintech Brite Payments is being built. On a mission to equip merchants with instant payments and payouts, Brite is not only one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintech companies but also one of its few profitable ones. 

An experienced payments executive, Lena started Brite in 2019 on a small angel-led seed and raised a $60M Series A from Headline and Dawn Capital in late 2023, the largest raised by a solo female founder that year. “I’m not the typical 'go-big-or-go-home founder,” she says as she shares her version of sustainable growth, why churn is the most important metric, and why the so-called Klarna mafia used to gather around bad pasta. The interview has been edited for brevity and for clarity. Reading time: 10’

First thing: What’s something people sometimes get wrong about Brite Payments? One thing is that we aren’t part of a third-party infrastructure. In fact, we’re a fully standalone payment method running on proprietary rails – Brite receives funds, collects, and reconciles them. It’s a complete solution, ready for the merchant to plug in. With us, money instantly moves between merchants and end users – in both directions – with significant savings potential compared to incumbent payment methods, including credit cards.

Now let’s take a big step back: What’s an early learning that you carry with you to this day? To tell things as they are but in a respectful way. This is something I learned from my dad, and I believe it has taken me to where I am now. I think people know me for speaking my mind. But when someone is rude to others, especially to those they might perceive as "less important," that’s a big red flag for me.

How does this apply to venture building? Never hire people who look down on others – whether it’s their direct reports or the office cleaning staff. In some startups, there's a noticeable difference in how misbehavior is handled depending on a person’s role or perceived value within the company. High performers, whether they are salespeople or rockstar developers, shouldn’t get a free pass on behavior that wouldn't be tolerated by the rest of the team. You can set high standards and demand a lot, but still treat everyone with respect. This holds particularly true for founders; you may have an inner voice telling you that things aren't moving fast enough, or that they are not being done the way you would do them personally, but especially as the business grows you need to appreciate that others don’t think the same way as you do. Back to workplace behavior, nobody should ever leave a meeting feeling bad about themselves.

Since you mention the workplace: What's an object you keep in your office to remind you of who you are? I have a ton of photos of my friends and their families. I work long hours, and I like it. As long as you still make time to spend with family and friends, it doesn’t have to become emotionally draining or a downward slope. I aim to speak with friends and family before and after work every day, bookending what can be very long work days. As a founder, there’s a risk of ending up in a “me and my problems” mindset, but speaking with people outside the business gives you perspective and helps keep you grounded.

Another thing I have on my desk is some of my very first business cards from my time at Klarna. Now, the branding isn’t nearly as slick as it is today, but it’s a reminder of where my journey in fintech started.

«When Klarna closed the $155M investment round in 2011, there was so much work to do that I went to the office on a Thursday morning and came home on Saturday at 5 AM. And I loved it.»

Let’s get to Klarna! You were there super early and with the company for almost 7 years. How did it start? I ended up in Stockholm by chance! I was wrapping up my Master's Degree and working on a thesis with quantitative data collection among a cluster of Stockholm’s science and tech companies. Klarna, at that time, was still a very Swedish company, doing online invoices, and looking to grow both geographically and in terms of the product offering. Like most Business School students back then, I had dreams of McKinsey or Goldman Sachs. When they approached me, I entered the interview more interested in getting interview experience than a job offer. My interview was with Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Klarna’s founder. He was incredibly compelling, so I wanted to give Klarna a try and accepted. Then everything happened so fast. There was so much to do as Klarna was internationalising. Six months in I was promoted, and from there it was a wild entrepreneurial ride. When we closed the $155M investment round in 2011, there was so much work to do that I went to the office on a Thursday morning and came home on Saturday at 5 AM. And I loved it.

What’s your fondest memory of that time? The teamwork. Everybody really wanted to make it work and they cared. Even though things could get messy as the company grew, the early days had no politics. Everyone had a very “how can I help” attitude. Everyone would do a bit of everything. I was running around projects, Operations, PR, sales, and marketing. Brite’s COO, Alexander Kassai, was also at Klarna back then, and we must have had hundreds of vending machine dinners; really boring pasta with tomato sauce. The so-called “Klarna Mafia” formed around that bad vending machine pasta.

When did you know it was time to go? When I started feeling, “I’ve done this already, I already know how this works.” When Klarna acquired the German direct payments company Sofort, I saw that the company was loved by consumers and wildly successful with a high-margin but fairly basic product. It was my first exposure to account-to-account (A2A) payments. However, I received an offer to join a financial services company as Chief Product Officer. Having experienced sales and marketing at Klarna, I wanted to be on the other side and experience product development. Making that decision was very difficult and emotional, as I felt a great deal of loyalty towards Klarna. Just a few months in, I was CEO of the new company, which was eventually listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.

And from there?  Eventually, I started thinking: Why is there no instant payments product that combines a strong consumer brand and an easy-to-use product with a state-of-the-art platform and a compelling business proposition for merchants? Something that decreases the cost of payments for merchants overall, as well as taking away the credit and fraud risk. The idea of Brite Payments started forming. The turning point was talking with a friend about the account-to-account space. We agreed that the opportunity was massive, but disagreed on how it should be tackled. I started arguing that it should be done in a certain way, and the more we spoke, the more I realized I already had a plan of sorts. A plan for what became Brite Payments.

Meet the Headliner: An experienced payments executive, Lena started Brite in 2019 on a small angel-led seed and raised a $60M Series A from Headline and Dawn Capital in late 2023, the largest raised by a solo female founder that year. “I’m not the typical 'go-big-or-go-home founder,” she says as she shares her version of sustainable growth, why churn is the most important metric, and why the so-called Klarna mafia used to gather around bad pasta.

Lena Hackelöer, Founder of Brite Payments

On the Future of Payments, Profitable Growth & Klarna's Mafia

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