The IPO Buzz: Sweden’s Klarna Files its IPO Plans in Deal Pegged at Up to $1 Billion

Sweden’s “buy now, pay later” company Klarna Group plc (KLAR Proposed) filed its plans for its long-awaited initial public offering late this afternoon – a deal that could raise up to $1 billion, by Bloomberg’s estimate. Klarna made its IPO plans official after the closing bell. The news broke hot on the heels of today’s relief rally, which came 24 hours after the S&P 500 had slid into a correction on Thursday amid anxiety over President Trump’s tariffs. Klarna has been on the IPO Watch List for a long time. The Klarna IPO countdown clock has been ticking steadily since the company submitted its confidential IPO paperwork last November. Klarna’s IPO is a New York Stock Exchange listing. Goldman Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are the joint lead book-runners. BofA Securities, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities, Societe Generale and UBS Investment Bank round out the joint book-running team. Roots in Sweden, HQ in London Klarna, founded in 2005 in Sweden, lists London as its corporate headquarters in its S-1 filing. Klarna is incorporated in England and Wales. The company also has a U.S. presence based in Columbus, Ohio. “We are a technology company building the next-generation commerce network,” Klarna said in the prospectus. “We have built one of the largest commerce networks in the world, measured by the number of consumers and merchants, serving approximately 93 million active Klarna consumers and more than 675,000 merchants in 26 countries as of December 31, 2024, and facilitating $105 billion of GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) in 2024. Our flexible and personalized products, trusted consumer brand, global distribution and proprietary scalable infrastructure are the foundations enabling us to become our consumers’ everyday spending and saving partner, available everywhere and for everything.” In the prospectus, Klarna describes its business model: “Our payment options provide consumers with the choice to pay however they prefer: Pay in Full settles transactions instantly, Pay Later allows consumers to complete a purchase today while deferring payment to a later date or into installments and Fair Financing allows consumers to settle payments over a longer period of time.” Klarna makes money, according to the financial statements in its S-1 filing. For the year that ended Dec. 31, 2024, Klarna reported net income of $21.0 million on revenue of $2.81 billion.