Buy now, pay later service provider Klarna made its debut on the public market today, which could encourage other fintechs to do the same.
The IPO could boost the fintech sector at a time when many mature companies are sitting on the sidelines waiting for the macroeconomic environment to calm, Abdul Abdirahman, a principal at the Cambridge, Mass.-based venture capital firm F-Prime, told Bank Automation News.
“There is a healthy pipeline of scaled fintechs that have either filed or are exploring IPOs/SPACs, including companies like ReserveOne, Grayscale, Figure Technologies and Starling Bank,” Abdirahman said. A successful Klarna IPO could push other fintech companies to go through an IPO, he added.
The Swedish company, trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol KLAR, issued 34.3 million shares with an initial expectation of the stock price to be around $35 to $37, according to the company’s March 14 F-1 filing with the SEC. The IPO was oversubscribed and shares opened at $52, about 25% above expectations. The company hit a valuation of $18 billion at 1:40 p.m. ET today.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are the active bookrunners of the IPO, according to the company’s F-1 filings.
Growing operations
In 2025, Klarna has prioritized growing revenues and customer base while teaming up with retailers and other vendors to launch new products.
This year, Klarna announced:
- A partnership with Visa to launch a new debit card for Gen Z, which is averse to credit cards;
- Walmart selected Klarna as its preferred BNPL service provider; and
- A partnership with delivery app DoorDash to provide BNPL for purchases.
Klarna reported $832 million in revenue in the second quarter, a 20% year-over-year jump, and had 790,000 merchants offering its service with 111 million consumers, according to a company earnings release.
Klarna also disclosed a net loss of $53 million in the second quarter, up from $18 million in the same period a year ago, attributed, in part, to a one-time restructuring charge of $24 million, according to its earnings report.
Check out our exclusive new bank industry data here.
