Klarna IPO: Buy Now, Pay Later firm reveals profit and growth details as possible stock listing date nears

In what could be one of the most high-profile fintech public offerings this year, Swedish Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) giant Klarna has filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to an initial proposed public offering. Here’s what you need to know about Klarna’s IPO.

What’s happened?

On March 14, Klarna Group plc announced that it had filed paperwork with the SEC “relating to a proposed initial public offering of its ordinary shares.” The paperwork is known as a “registration statement” on Form F-1 and is the latest sign that Klarna’s IPO is coming sooner rather than later. It includes a preliminary prospectus that offers a detailed look into the company’s financial performance and potential risk factors.

What is Klarna?

Klarna is a fintech company based in Sweden. Though it has its fingers in several aspects of fintech, the company is best known for its Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services. BNPL allows consumers to purchase an item today but pay for it in installments—usually four spread over a number of months.

Klarna says it has approximately 93 million active users and counts 675,000 merchants as partners across 26 countries as of 2024. The company says that in that same year, it helped facilitate $105 billion of gross merchandise volume.

Klarna was originally founded as “Kreditor” in 2005, making the company 20 years old this year. Kreditor changed its name to Klarna in 2010.

Interestingly, in its F-1 filing with the SEC, Klarna revealed it had remained a profitable company for the first 14 years of its existence. But then, it decided to expand into the U.S. in 2019.

“In 2019, we strategically decided to expand our successful operating model into additional geographies, with a particular focus on the United States, and in the following three years expanded into 12 additional markets,” the company wrote. “While our expansion in the United States has contributed to an increase in our GMV, it has also led to net losses in recent periods. In 2023, our operating loss started to decline and we began generating positive Transaction margin dollars in the United States, while continuing to grow our GMV and the number of active Klarna consumers and merchants worldwide.”

When is Klarna’s IPO date?

Klarna has not set an IPO date yet. There are still several steps it needs to go through before it can hold its actual IPO. The company had previously filed IPO paperwork confidentially with the SEC in November.

What is Klarna’s stock ticker?

That is one of the few firm details we do know about Klarna’s future IPO.

Klarna stock will trade under the ticker “KLAR.”

What stock exchange will Klarna trade on?

Klarna intends to trade its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

How much will Klarna seek to raise in its IPO?

Klarna Hasn’t officially announced that yet. However, Bloomberg reports that the Swedish company is seeking to raise “at least” $1 billion USD.

What is Klarna’s valuation?

If the company raises around $1 billion in its IPO, Bloomberg says the company’s valuation could be more than $15 billion.

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