Sebastian Siemiatkowski, chief government officer and co-founder of Klarna Holding AB, middle, and Michael Moritz, chairman of Klarna Bank AB, middle proper, through the firm’s preliminary public providing (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Klarna shares popped 30% of their New York Stock Exchange debut Wednesday, opening at $52, after the Swedish on-line lender priced its IPO above its anticipated vary.
The firm, recognized for its fashionable purchase now, pay later merchandise, priced shares at $40 on Tuesday, elevating $1.37 billion for the corporate and current shareholders. The providing valued Klarna at about $15 billion.
The IPO marks the newest in a rising record of high-profile tech IPOs this 12 months, suggesting elevated demand from Wall Street for brand new choices. Companies like stablecoin issuer Circle and design software program platform Figma soared of their respective debuts. Meanwhile, crypto alternate Gemini is predicted to go public later this week.
“To me, it really just is a milestone,” Klarna’s co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski advised CNBC in an interview on Wednesday. “It’s a little bit like a wedding. You prepare so much and you plan for it and it’s a big party. But in the end — marriage goes on.”
Klarna’s entry into the general public markets will take a look at Wall Street’s pleasure concerning the route of its enterprise. The firm has in latest months talked up its transfer into banking, rolling out a debit card and private deposit accounts within the U.S.
Klarna has signed 700,000 card clients within the U.S. to date and has 5 million folks on a ready record in search of entry to the product, Siemiatkowski advised CNBC. He added that Klarna Card represents a special proposition to rival fintech Affirm’s card providing, which has attracted 2 million customers since its launch in 2021.
“We’re attracting a slightly different audience maybe than the Affirm card,” Siemiatkowski stated. “I get the impression that is more a card where people use it simply to be able to have financing with interest on slightly higher tickets.”
In addition to Affirm, Klarna additionally competes with Afterpay, which was acquired for $29 billion in 2021 by Square, now a unit of Block.
Klarna faces some potential regulatory headwinds. In the U.Ok., the federal government has proposed new guidelines to convey BNPL loans underneath formal oversight to deal with affordability issues relating to the market.
A banner for Swedish fintech Klarna, hangs on the entrance of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to rejoice the corporate’s IPO in New York City, U.S., September 10, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
The IPO is poised to generate billions of {dollars} in returns for a few of Klarna’s long-time traders. Existing shareholders are providing the majority of Klarna shares— 28.8 million — on the general public market. At its IPO worth of $40, that interprets to over $1.2 billion. Meanwhile, Klarna raised $222 million from the IPO.
Sequoia, which first backed in Klarna in 2010, has invested $500 million in whole. The enterprise agency offered 2 million of its 79 million shares within the IPO, that means it is generated an total return of about $2.65 billion, primarily based on the provide worth.
Andrew Reed, a associate at Sequoia, advised CNBC that he was nonetheless in faculty when Sequoia made its first funding in an “alternative payments company in Stockholm.” The early work, he stated, was round increasing in Europe.
“Being here in New York 15 years later with over 100 million consumers and over $100 billion of GMV [gross merchandise value] and close to a million merchants, it is staggering what one year after another of execution and growth and Sebastian’s long-term vision can do,” Reed stated.
Another Klarna investor hasn’t been so fortunate. Japan’s GentleBank led a 2021 funding spherical in Klarna at a $46 billion valuation and has since seen the worth of its stake plunge significantly.
WATCH: CNBC’s interview with Klarna CEO Sebastian Siematkowski