OpenAI just made a bold move by acquiring Jony Ive’s design company io in an all-stock deal worth $6.5 billion. But behind the scenes, Klarna’s CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski was quietly smiling. His investment firm, Flat Capital, had bet on io just six months ago—and that bet paid off fast.
Posting on X, Siemiatkowski shared that Flat Capital would now receive more shares in OpenAI’s for-profit business. The investment firm later confirmed it had spent 34 million SEK (about $3.6 million) on io as part of a small portfolio of U.S. AI startups.
While Klarna’s win grabbed headlines, another came from the shadows. Luke Wroblewski, a former Google designer now at Sutter Hill Ventures, also shared a post. In it, he congratulated io and revealed that Sutter Hill had invested too. He deleted the post soon after, sparking even more curiosity.
Some reports suggest Sutter Hill may have been io‘s second-largest investor. While that isn’t confirmed, Bloomberg later backed claims that Sutter was indeed involved. The biggest investor? OpenAI itself. It already owned 23% of io, a stake worth around $1.5 billion.
That means OpenAI used roughly $5 billion in stock to buy the rest. Other known backers included Emerson Collective (led by Laurene Powell Jobs), Thrive Capital, Maverick Ventures, SV Angel, and the OpenAI Fund. Unlike its name suggests, that fund isn’t bankrolled by OpenAI—it’s powered by outside investors.
The io deal isn’t just a win for early insiders like Klarna and Sutter Hill. It also shows how fast bets in AI can turn into major wins—if you get the timing right.
