Klarna IPO: shares of one of Europe's most valuable fintech startups begin trading

Preliminary trading in shares of European fintech startup Klarna, which specializes in online installment payments, began on the Freedom client trading system under the ticker KLAR.US. Klarna's IPO was one of the largest on Wall Street in 2025. The company's securities will appear on the New York Stock Exchange later Wednesday.

Klarna and its shareholders raised $1.37 billion on the NYSE by offering 34.3 million shares at $40 per paper, well above the top end of its stated price range ($35-37). As a result, the market value of the company amounted to $15.1 bln.

Klarna's listing was the fourth largest fundraising in New York in 2025 after Venture Global ($1.75 billion), CoreWeave ($1.5 billion) and SailPoint ($1.38 billion). Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley acted as lead underwriters for the IPO, with Klarna itself selling 5.6 million securities. Sequoia Capital, Heartland A/S and its other shareholders sold 28.8 million securities.

Of the $1.37 billion raised, Klarna will receive only $200 million: the remaining $1.17 billion will go to its shareholders who sold some of their shares in the IPO, CNBC noted.

Klarna was founded in 2005 in Stockholm, but changed its registered office to London in 2024. It became famous for its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) service, which became particularly popular during the online shopping boom during the pandemic. The startup offers its own Klarna Card bank card in partnership with Visa and a mobile app with cashback for purchases made through it. By July 2025, Klarna had 111 million active users and 790,000 merchant partners in 26 countries.

Klarna's latest financial statements reflect rising sales and losses. According to the IPO prospectus, in the first half of 2025, the company's revenue increased 15% to $1.5 billion. The net loss for the half-year amounted to $152 million - almost 5 times more than a year earlier. At the same time, the startup ended 2024 with a profit of $21 million against a loss of $244 million in 2023.

Klarna planned to go public as early as 2021 and at that time expected a valuation of about $50 billion. During an investment round in 2022, private investors valued the startup at $46 billion, but a year later its valuation plummeted to $6.7 billion. In October 2024, Deutsche Bank valued the company at $14.6 billion, and a month later Klarna filed a preliminary application for an IPO. However, in April 2025, it had to put the offering on pause due to increased turbulence in global financial markets after the trade war launched by Washington.

Freedom Broker analyst Alem Bektemirov gave Klarna shares a Buy rating. According to his calculations, the fair value of the company is about $18.4 bln, or $48 per share. Such estimation gives a potential growth of 20% to the offering price.

Klarna shares are likely to be a bargain buy in the long run due to continued demand for BNPL services, says Bankless Times. The publication cites data from Forge Global, according to which Klarna's quotation in the OTC market has doubled since the beginning of 2023, and emphasizes that Klarna went into profit in 2024. "The most likely scenario is that Klarna's share price will rise sharply after the IPO, then decline by the time the lock-up period expires, before recovering over time," the article says.

Kiplinger recommends that retail investors take an extremely cautious approach: if they buy Klarna shares immediately after the IPO, they should buy them for the minimum amount and according to a preconceived plan. While stocks usually perform strongly on the first day after listing, returns for new issuers tend to be weak in the first year, Kiplinger says, citing Trivariate Research.

The most prudent tactic regarding Klarna's IPO is to wait, writes Peter S. Cohan, founder of consulting firm Peter S. Cohan & Associates and Forbes columnist Peter Cohan. He explicitly advises against buying Klarna stock during the IPO for three reasons: modest growth and lack of profitability, stiff competition, and possible customer service problems due to overuse of artificial intelligence. He says an investment decision should be made no sooner than the six-month ban on stock sales by Klarna insiders (lock-up period) expires and the company itself proves it can outperform market forecasts. Barron's also urges investors to be patient due to Klarna's continued loss-making nature and the risks of volatility or a sell-off after the lock-up expires.

New Constructs founder David Trainer made a strong recommendation in a column for Forbes not to buy now or later in the Klarna listing. He said Klarna's IPO looks more like a way for early investors to lock in profits by dumping overvalued shares to unsuspecting public market participants. The company faces competition from a host of similar services, is struggling to improve profitability and is not yet profitable, Trainer recalled. To justify its projected $13.5 billion valuation, Klarna would have to grow revenue by an average of 24% a year for a long time while dramatically improving margins - and that's "unlikely," he estimated.

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Freedom clients will be able to get access to Klarna shares before the opening of the main exchange session. Trading will begin in the early pre-market format 2-3 hours before the opening of the US exchanges (from 15:30-16:30 Astana time). To participate, click on the ticker KLAR.US.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor