NEW YORK — Klarna priced its long awaited initial public offering at $40 a share late Tuesday, valuing the Swedish buy now, pay later company at more than $15 billion.
The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. The $40 share price came in above market expectations, which called for Klarna to price its shares between $35 and $37 each.
Founded in 2005 as a payments company, Klarna entered the U.S. buy now, pay market in 2015 in partnership with department store operator Macy’s. Since then, Klarna has expanded to hundreds of thousands of merchants and has embedded itself in internet browsers and digital wallets as an alternative to credit cards. The company recently announced a partnership with Walmart.
Klarna’s most popular product is what’s known as a “pay-in-4” plan, where a customer can split a purchase into four payments spread over six weeks. The company also offers a longer-term payment plan where it charges interest.
The business model has caught on globally. The company said 111 million consumers worldwide have used Klarna for a purchase.
Ahead of going public, Klarna reported in August that it had second-quarter revenues of $823 million and had an adjusted profit of $29 million.
The company will start trading Wednesday under the symbol “KLAR” on the New York Stock Exchange. While based in Sweden and a popular payment service in Europe, its decision to go public on U.S. markets is a sign that the company executives see American shoppers as its future growth market.
Klarna will now be the second-largest buy now, pay later company on U.S. public markets, behind Affirm. Shares of Affirm have surged more than 40% so far this year, valuing the company at around $28 billion, helped by a belief among investors that buy now, pay later companies may take away market share from traditional banks and credit cards.
Klarna was backed by JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs as their investment banks.
Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin. Investors are also looking forward to the expected market debuts of the ticket exchange StubHub and the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, which is majority owned by the Winklevoss twins.
