Sebastian Siemiatkowski, chief executive officer and co-founder of Klarna Holding AB, center, and Michael Moritz, chairman of Klarna Bank AB, center right, during the company's initial public offering (IPO) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.
Klarna shares popped 30% in their New York Stock Exchange debut Wednesday, opening at $52, after the Swedish online lender priced its IPO above its expected range.
The company, known for its popular buy now, pay later products, priced shares at $40 on Tuesday, raising $1.37 billion for the company and existing shareholders. The offering valued Klarna at about $15 billion.
The IPO marks the latest in a growing list of high-profile tech IPOs this year, suggesting increased demand from Wall Street for new offerings. Companies like stablecoin issuer Circle and design software platform Figma soared in their respective debuts. Meanwhile, crypto exchange Gemini is expected to go public later this week.
"To me, it really just is a milestone," Klarna's co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told CNBC in an interview on Wednesday. "It's a little bit like a wedding. You prepare so much and you plan for it and it's a big party. But in the end — marriage goes on."
Klarna's entry into the public markets will test Wall Street's excitement about the direction of its business. The company has in recent months talked up its move into banking, rolling out a debit card and personal deposit accounts in the U.S.
Klarna has signed 700,000 card customers in the U.S. so far and has 5 million people on a waiting list seeking access to the product, Siemiatkowski told CNBC. He added that Klarna Card represents a different proposition to rival fintech Affirm's card offering, which has attracted 2 million users since its launch in 2021.
"We're attracting a slightly different audience maybe than the Affirm card," Siemiatkowski said. "I get the impression that is more a card where people use it simply to be able to have financing with interest on slightly higher tickets."
In addition to Affirm, Klarna also competes with Afterpay, which was acquired for $29 billion in 2021 by Square, now a unit of Block .
Klarna faces some potential regulatory headwinds. In the U.K., the government has proposed new rules to bring BNPL loans under formal oversight to address affordability concerns regarding the market.