Klarna IPO'd on NYSE at $40 per share on September 10, 2025, for a $15.1B fully-diluted market cap — one-third of its $45.6B 2021 peak. That's the short answer. The longer answer is more interesting.
Klarna raised $1.37B in the offering, opened around $52 on day one, and settled into the low $40s — a $14-16B band that has held for the first eight months of public-market trading. Heading into the second half of 2026, the question is no longer whether BNPL can go public. It can. The question is whether the unit economics finally support a sustainable multiple.
Klarna IPO 2026: What Actually Happened and Where the Stock Stands Now
Klarna's September 10, 2025 NYSE listing under ticker KLAR priced at $40 per share, raising approximately $1.37B at a $15.1B fully-diluted valuation. The stock opened at roughly $52, settled into the $40-46 range through Q4 2025, and trades around $42-48 in mid-2026 for a $14-16B market cap. It is the largest pure-play BNPL company in public markets and the largest fintech IPO of 2025.
IPO date
Sep 10, 2025
Ticker
NYSE: KLAR
IPO price
$40.00
Raise size
$1.37B
IPO market cap
$15.1B
2021 peak
$45.6B
2024 revenue
$2.81B
Active users
100M+
The Path From $45.6B Peak to $15.1B IPO
Klarna's valuation history is the cleanest case study of the 2021 fintech overshoot you will find. A six-step path took the company from a Swedish darling at $45.6B to an NYSE-listed business at one-third of that price, and the public markets actually liked the reset.
The 2022 down round mattered more than the IPO. Marking the book to $6.7B in 2022 forced an internal cost reset — 700 headcount cuts (~10%), then another 1,000+ via AI-driven attrition through 2024 — that made the 2025 listing possible at all.
Klarna vs Affirm vs Afterpay vs PayPal Pay in 4: BNPL by the Numbers
The BNPL category is more concentrated than it looks. Five players control 90%+ of US and European volume, and the gap between Klarna and Affirm at the top and everyone else widened materially in 2024-2026. Here is the side-by-side that matters.
| Metric | Klarna | Affirm | Afterpay (Block) | PayPal Pay in 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public status | NYSE: KLAR (Sep 2025) | Nasdaq: AFRM (Jan 2021) | Inside Block (SQ) | Inside PayPal (PYPL) |
| Market cap (2026) | ~$14-16B | ~$14-16B | n/a (segment) | n/a (segment) |
| Annual revenue | $3.3B (2025E) | $3.3B (FY25) | ~$1.0B GMV-implied | Bundled in PayPal |
| Annual GMV | $100B+ | $32B (FY25) | $30B+ | $33B+ |
| Active users | 100M+ | 21M | 24M | 45M+ (Pay in 4 users) |
| Merchant count | 575K+ | 330K+ | 100K+ | Universal (PayPal merchants) |
| Take rate (revenue/GMV) | ~3.0% | ~10% (incl. interest) | ~3.5% | ~2.0% |
| Credit loss rate (% GMV) | ~0.4-0.5% | ~3.0% (longer durations) | ~1.0% | <0.5% |
| Geography lead | Europe, AU | US (Shopify, Amazon) | US, AU retail | Global checkout |
| EV/Revenue multiple | ~4.5x | ~4.5x | Embedded | Embedded |
Klarna and Affirm trade at near-identical EV/Revenue multiples (~4.5x) but earn revenue very differently. Affirm runs longer-duration installment loans (3-36 months) and books interest income; Klarna sits closer to a 4-installment pay-in-4 model with merchant-fee-heavy revenue. The unit economics converge at the GMV line but diverge on credit loss and capital intensity.
Klarna's Business Model and Unit Economics in 2026
Klarna's P&L looks like a payments business with a credit-card chassis bolted on. Three revenue lines, three different margins.
Merchant fees
~70% of revenue
2.5-3% take rate on Pay in 4 and pay-now transactions. The high-margin core.
Consumer fees
~20% of revenue
Late fees, financing interest on longer-duration plans, FX on cross-border purchases.
Interest + other
~10% of revenue
Interest on financed plans, advertising network revenue (Klarna's 2024 push), and bank deposit income.
The four numbers that matter for any BNPL investor — and what Klarna's 2025 reset actually moved:
Credit loss rate
Before: 1.0%+ of GMV (2021)
2025: 0.4-0.5% of GMV (2025)
Operating expense per employee
Before: ~$580K (2021)
2025: $820K+ (2025, post-AI)
Headcount
Before: ~7,000 (2021 peak)
2025: ~3,800 (2025, -46%)
Adjusted operating income
Before: ($1.0B) loss (2022)
2025: ~$200M+ profit (2025)
Net merchant retention
Before: ~108% (2021)
2025: ~115% (2025)
GMV per active user
Before: ~$650 (2021)
2025: $1,000+ (2025)
Is the BNPL Era Back? Three Things 2026 Has to Prove
BNPL went from a 2021 retail-stock darling to a 2022 down-round category to a 2025 viable IPO sector in 36 months. Heading into the back half of 2026, the "is BNPL back" question collapses into three concrete tests.
1. Can Klarna sustain GAAP net profitability across four full quarters?
Klarna printed adjusted operating income in 2025, but GAAP net income — after stock-based comp, IPO costs, and interest expense — is the bar Wall Street actually measures. Affirm has whipsawed on this metric for four years. If Klarna delivers four consecutive GAAP-profitable quarters by Q1 2027, the 4.5x multiple sticks and likely expands.
2. Does the CFPB BNPL rule survive 2026 challenges intact?
The CFPB May 2024 interpretive rule classifying BNPL providers as credit card lenders forced disclosure parity, dispute rights, and refund processing changes. Industry challenges in late 2025 narrowed the scope. The 2026 question is whether the rule is rolled back, expanded, or held — and whether late fees (a meaningful revenue line) survive any rewrite.
3. Can Klarna's AI cost structure hold as GMV grows another 25%?
Klarna very publicly replaced ~700 customer service roles with an AI chatbot in 2024 and ran 46% below peak headcount through 2025. If 2026 GMV grows 25%+ without a proportional rehire, operating leverage expands and the EV/Revenue multiple has room. If support costs reaccelerate, the cost story unwinds and the stock retraces.
What Klarna's IPO Signals for the 2026 Fintech Pipeline
Klarna's September 2025 listing was the unlock. Six months later, Chime, Stripe, and a half-dozen other names finally had a comp set that priced fintech off real public-market numbers instead of 2021 vintage marks.
- →Chime IPO (Q1 2026, Nasdaq): priced at $27, ~$18B market cap, ~3.5x revenue — comping Klarna's 4.5x at higher growth.
- →Stripe (rumored late 2026): last marked at $91.5B, but a Klarna-style reset to ~$80B or below now looks more likely than a $100B+ debut.
- →Affirm re-rating: AFRM's multiple compressed slightly post-KLAR as the public market got a second BNPL comp, but profitability convergence keeps both names near 4.5x.
- →European fintech precedent: Klarna is the first major Sweden-rooted fintech to list in the US — a path Revolut, N26, and Wise may follow if KLAR holds above the offering price.
Track the full fintech IPO pipeline on the Tech IPO Tracker.
Klarna's $15.1B IPO is not a comeback. It is a reset.
BNPL is back as a 4.5x revenue business with real profitability — not a 20x growth-bubble story. That math is what makes the 2026 fintech pipeline finally executable.
Track fintech IPOs and BNPL valuations on the Tech IPO and SaaS Valuations dashboards at Value Add VC. Originally published in the Trace Cohen newsletter.