In public, Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia of Sweden move in lockstep: the same official engagements, the same royal calendar, and a shared annual allowance of 1,247,000 Swedish kronor (roughly $128,000) in public funds for their representational work. Away from the palace, though, their private business ventures couldn’t look more different.
© GettyImagesAccording to Svensk Damtidning, one of them is turning a healthy profit. The other hasn’t had a good year in five.
Sofia's complicated family finances
Barely a year after her 2015 wedding, Sofia quietly registered a limited company, SKB Sweden, in 2016. It was set up to offer consulting services in the textile industry and to manage property and assets, but a decade on, it still hasn’t taken off. Svensk Damtidning reports that the firm is now in its fifth consecutive year of losses.
After losing 307,861 kronor (about $32,000) in 2024, its most recent annual accounts showed no revenue at all and a net deficit of 42,383 kronor (nearly $4,400).
© Getty ImagesThe magazine argues that the Princess isn't at the center of that story. It's all tied to her father, Erik Hellqvist, whom the outlet casts as a key, protective and discreet presence in her business life. The Swedish Crown places strict rules on royals’ private business dealings, and according to Svensk Damtidning, those rules are what led Sofia to keep her own name off the company’s management, listing the Royal Palace as its mailing address and making her father her most important business ally.
Erik sits on SKB Sweden’s board as a full member, backed by Sofia’s younger sister, Sara Bailey, who serves as an alternate. That arrangement puts the legal responsibility on Erik: he’s the one who signs the annual accounts and makes the company’s decisions, as SKB Sweden continues working toward its stated purpose of consulting in the textile industry, managing real estate and personal property, and related activities.
Carl Philip's success
© Ragnar SingsaasOn the other side of the ledger is Carl Philip, whose commercial success few people would have bet on. When he isn’t carrying out royal duties, the son of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia runs the design studio Bernadotte & Kylberg, which he co-founded in 2012 with his close friend Oscar Kylberg.
The firm designs furniture, textiles and homeware, while also redesigning hotel rooms. After a few years of reinvention, it’s now generating profits at a steady clip. In its 2025 accounts, the studio billed more than 10 million kronor (just over $1 million), delivering a profit of 400,000 kronor (about $41,000) to the prince, which went directly into his company.
For the Hellqvists, everything changed when Sofia married into the royal family and became a princess. Still, the family chose to keep a low profile. Behind the scenes, and especially when it comes to business, the Hellqvists are a tight-knit unit. In 2024, after more than three decades in Älvdalen, Sofia’s parents moved to Stockholm to be closer to her and to their grandchildren.
© Michael Campanella
