Buy now, pay later provider Klarna says it filed confidentially for U.S. IPO

Buy now, pay later provider Klarna says it filed confidentially for U.S. IPO


Buy now, pay later firms like Klarna and Block’s Afterpay could be about to face tougher rules in the U.K.

Nikolas Kokovlis | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Klarna, which is known for its popular buy now, pay later business, announced Wednesday that it’s confidentially filed IPO documents with the SEC.

The Swedish payments company has yet to publicly file its IPO prospectus. The company said the offering would follow the SEC’s review process and is subject to market conditions.

Analysts recently valued Klarna, which was founded in 2005, in the $15 billion range. At its peak during the pandemic-led surge in fintech stocks and e-commerce, the company had a valuation of $46 billion in a funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.

But Klarna took an 85% haircut in its most recent primary fundraising round, in 2022, when the company raised money on a valuation of $6.7 billion.

In addition to SoftBank, Klarna’s roster of shareholders includes Sequoia Capital and London-based firm Atomico.

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski previously told CNBC in an interview that unfavorable rules in Europe on employee stock options could risk the company losing talent to U.S. tech giants such as Google, Apple and Meta.

Plans for an IPO have been in the works for some time. In a February interview with CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” Siemiatkowski said an IPO in 2024 was “not impossible.” Affirm, one of the company’s key competitors, went public in 2021 and is now valued at about $18 billion.

In August, Klarna said it swung to a profit in the first half of the year.

Klarna’s decision to go pursue a listing in the U.S. represents a major blow to European stock exchanges, which have been trying to encourage local tech companies to list at home.

The London Stock Exchange, for example, has made reforms to make the U.K. a more attractive market for tech companies to list, including the ability for founders to issue dual-class shares that enable entrepreneurs to maintain control over a company’s strategy and direction.

Siemiatkowski hadn’t previously committed to listing in one market over another, and London was among the markets he was considering for Klarna’s IPO.

However, in 2021 he said that the firm was more likely to list in the U.S. than the U.K., due in part to higher visibility.

WATCH: Block and Affirm slide on earnings

Block and Affirm slide on earnings



Source

Bitcoin climbs, reaching a new all-time high above ,000
Technology

Bitcoin climbs, reaching a new all-time high above $97,000

Bitcoin breached the $95,000 level for the first time Wednesday evening as investors continued pricing in a second Donald Trump presidency. The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by more than 3% at $97,646.68, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose as high as $97,788.00. Shares of MicroStrategy, a bitcoin proxy, gained 3% […]

Read More
Nvidia says it will sell more of its next-generation Blackwell chips than previously anticipated
Technology

Nvidia says it will sell more of its next-generation Blackwell chips than previously anticipated

After a quarter where Nvidia’s sales nearly doubled, investors and analysts are wondering how long the chipmaker can keep this kind of growth going now that it has a $140 billion annual revenue run rate. Those hopes fall on Blackwell, which is Nvidia’s name for a family of server products based around its next-generation AI […]

Read More
Snowflake shares pop 19% on earnings and revenue beat
Technology

Snowflake shares pop 19% on earnings and revenue beat

The New York Stock Exchange welcomes Snowflake to usher in the first day of winter on Dec. 21, 2021. NYSE Snowflake shares on Wednesday spiked 19% in extended trading after the data analytics software maker reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that beat estimates. Here’s how the company did, compared to LSEG analyst expectations: Earnings per share: […]

Read More