The news: Klarna started trading on the NYSE on Wednesday under the ticker symbol KLAR. 

• Klarna’s stock opened at $52 per share—well above anticipated levels of $35-$37 per share—and closed at $48.82.
• By the end of the day, the buy now, pay later (BNPL) player was valued at $17.3 billion.

Why this matters: Klarna has been waiting for months to find the right time to IPO, having postponed its initial April 7 date after President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs rattled markets. 

Listing now demonstrates Swedish-based fintech's confidence that global macroeconomic conditions had finally improved—or, at least, they weren’t getting much better anytime soon.

Klarna’s reaction: In an interview with CNBC, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski called the company’s IPO “a milestone” akin to a wedding: “You prepare so much and you plan for it and it’s a big party. But in the end—marriage goes on.” 

Siemiatkowski sees “a huge opportunity to disrupt the credit card industry in the US,” which should put US issuers on notice. 

Strategic counterprogramming: As Klarna celebrated its IPO, Affirm CEO Max Levchin told Yahoo News his company was planning broader overseas expansion to fuel growth, an attempt to break into markets where Klarna is already well established. Levchin wants to roll out the Affirm Card’s audience across more countries given the power of its performance.

Our take: Klarna’s IPO outperformance signals investor hunger for major tech listings, following Circle and Figma’s standout public offerings. As Klarna moves deeper into the US BNPL market, Siemiatkowski said that different use cases between the Affirm and Klarna Cards will determine the future of each fintech player. 

As the Affirm Card doubles down on financing higher-ticket items, Klarna is still waiting for its card product, geared toward smaller ticket sizes, to take off. The success of Klarna’s primary use case and card will determine whether it can knock Affirm off the podium for US BNPL spend.

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