Shares of Klarna rose about 16% on Wednesday following the company’s long-awaited initial public offering, proving that there’s investor appetite for yet another public fintech company.
The Stockholm-based company, which has evolved its model to offer more than just buy now, pay later plans, had set a price range for its IPO of $35 to $37 per share. Late Tuesday, it increased the price of its shares to $40 due to “better-than-expected demand.”
Shares opened at $52 and climbed as high as $57.20 before closing at $46.40 on Wednesday, trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KLAR.
Klarna raised $1.37 billion from the offering.
The company had filed a draft registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last November, and in March made its F-1 prospectus public. But by early April, Klarna seemed to be hitting an indefinite pause on its IPO plans after President Trump announced sweeping tariffs.
At its peak as a private company, Klarna was valued at $45.6 billion. More recently, it was valued at $14.6 billion. Its market cap after its first day trading on the NYSE stood at $17.5 billion.
Since its 2005 inception, the company has raised nearly $6.2 billion in funding from investors including Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic and Silver Lake, with Santander adding $1.63 billion to that total in a debt financing just last week. Unlike many other fintechs, Klarna is profitable and turned net income of $21 million in 2024.
The open IPO market
Its IPO follows a string of well-received venture-backed debuts, including the blockbuster market entry by design software provider Figma, which saw shares triple in first-day trading (although they have come back down to earth since).
Klarna’s IPO also comes amid renewed interest in investment in fintech startups, with multiple rounds above $100 million closing this year.
Overall, the IPO dam in fintech finally seems to have broken in 2025.
Since the beginning of the year, several companies in the fintech space have either gone public or filed to do so.
- In early June, shares of Circle closed up 168% at $83.29 in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, minting the stablecoin issuer with a market cap of around $16.7 billion and renewing hopes for an IPO market rebound. More recently, shares have traded in the $118 range.
- Digital bank Chime went public on June 12, and came out swinging. Chime’s shares shot up 37% in first-day trading on Nasdaq, closing at $37. Shares have traded around $23 in recent days.
Meanwhile, digital wealth management startup Wealthfront filed confidentially for a U.S. initial public offering on June 23. And in early June, crypto exchange Gemini confidentially filed its own plans for a U.S. IPO. Expense management firm Navan (formerly TripActions) also filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO in June. And, blockchain lender Figure is set to make its public debut on Sept. 11.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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