It’s a long way from here to Klarna’s peak $46 billion valuation from 2001, but Tuesday’s nearly 15% pop in its IPO price offered up a public markets “seal of approval” for buy now, pay later (BNPL) as a game-changing financial services play.
On Wednesday (Sept. 10), Klarna priced its U.S. IPO at $40 per share, above its earlier targeted range of $35–$37, implying an initial valuation around $15.1 billion. On its New York Stock Exchange debut, shares opened at about $52, peaked near $57, and ultimately settled around $45.82, a notable 15% gain over the IPO price.
That intraday action marked a healthy pop as well as some pullback, as investors digested the realignment from previous private valuations.
Klarna’s offering generated approximately $1.37 billion, with roughly 34.3 million shares offered. Of that total, about $200 million came directly to the company via newly issued shares, while the rest flowed to selling shareholders.
High-Profile Greenlight
PYMNTS Intelligence has estimated that several providers hold notable estimated market share in the U.S. BNPL space.
Klarna holds the largest share at 26.2%, followed by Afterpay at 21.9% and Affirm at 19.3%. The share of U.S. consumers with active BNPL accounts varies across demographic segments, but the fact that the user base skews younger, as our data shows, indicates that providers are likely to have long-lived relationships, with repeat usage. Users aged 25–34 are the most active users, at nearly one in four.
Many consumers don’t exclusively use one type of pay-later product, and the opportunity is there for Klarna and its BNPL competitors. More than 80% of the total adult population reports having credit cards. Among those who use pay-later products, 38.7% use both BNPL and installment loans, so there’s room for a further embrace of BNPL.
For FinTech firms eyeing public markets, Klarna’s debut is a high-profile greenlight. After a multi-year IPO freeze following 2021’s valuation slump and volatility delays—including a pause early in 2025 over tariff fears—Klarna convinced investors there’s still appetite for embedded-finance plays with strong brand power and path to scale. If the aftermarket holds, other challengers in payments, lending and embedded financial services may be emboldened to follow.
It also signals that conservative pricing still resonates: Klarna opted for a modest valuation relative to its 2021 private peak (over $45 billion) and the market accepted it.
Second, strong demand—oversubscription reported and a lift at open—shows investors are willing to reward scale and diversification.
Headed into the first day of trading, PYMNTS wrote that validation via the public markets may extend to adjacent FinTech models as long as fundamentals and governance are solid.
While Klarna’s IPO valuation—somewhere between $15 and $19 billion depending on how peak pricing is measured—is a shadow of its former private valuation, the solid first-day performance brings another player into the public sphere.
For FinTechs waiting in the wings, Klarna’s debut offers more than a valuation signal, and indeed may offer a blueprint.