Klarna began trading on the New York Stock Exchange after pricing its initial public offering at $40 a share, above the marketed $35 to $37 range.
The deal raised about $1.37 billion and implies a valuation near $15.1 billion, a high-profile return to public markets for consumer fintech and a sign that the broader IPO pipeline is unclogging.
The offering consisted of 34.3 million shares sold by Klarna and existing investors, with the bulk of proceeds going to selling shareholders.
Investor backers raised roughly $1.17 billion, underscoring that the listing primarily provided liquidity rather than new primary capital for the company. Klarna’s shares trade under the ticker KLAR.
The pricing above range matters as much as the headline sum. It suggests books were healthy and investors were willing to pay up for a consumer credit name that still carries the scars of the last two years.
Klarna’s private valuation peaked around $45 billion in 2021 before dropping to about $6.7 billion in 2022 as rates jumped and risk appetite faded. The new public mark near $15 billion is well below the peak but meaningfully higher than the trough, a trajectory that may embolden other late-stage issuers that paused plans in the spring.
A functioning new-issue market tends to lift risk sentiment across equities, and Klarna’s float arrives during one of the busiest U.S. listing weeks in years.
Seven companies, including Gemini, are slated to go public by Friday, a cluster that would have looked unlikely a few months ago. If those trades price cleanly and hold in secondary, bankers will push more files out of the queue ahead of the fourth quarter.
Klarna targets smaller average ticket sizes than Affirm and leans on short-tenor installments, a model that can be sensitive to consumer delinquencies but turns capital quickly when underwriting holds up. Investors will focus on credit metrics, funding costs, and take rates as the cycle evolves.
Klarna’s CFO framed the listing as a chance to broaden ownership after years of private backing. The company did not disclose any changes to near-term strategy around product expansion or geography tied to the IPO.
This is clear that public status will place its unit economics, loss rates, and funding mix under the same scrutiny that has pushed peers to pull back from riskier cohorts when conditions tighten.
Trading dynamics will reveal as much as the prospectus. Above-range pricing can invite quick profit taking, but well-supported books often translate to orderly opens and less day-one volatility.
Underwriters typically have an option to buy additional shares to stabilize trading if needed, and Klarna’s latest SEC filing shows a 30-day allotment of up to roughly 5.15 million shares.
