It’s been a long road for the 20-year-old fintech Klarna to make it to an IPO. But on Wednesday, the company successfully landed on the New York Stock Exchange, having raised $1.4 billion, largely for its existing investors, rather than itself.
The fintech giant sold shares at $40, above its announced range of $35 to $37, and came out of the gate with a $15 billion valuation. Shares popped, opening at $52, though quickly settling down to around $46 mid-day.
Of the 34.3 million shares Klarna sold, only 5 million were sold by the company, it said. The rest were sold by existing investors like the company’s largest shareholder Sequoia Capital. Entities controlled by Dutch billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, Silver Lake, BlackRock, and many others sold as well. Despite cashing out some shares, all of them are holding onto the majority of their stakes.
Figma’s IPO did a similar thing. Yet, often these existing investors don’t want to sell at the IPO price, a VC told TechCrunch. They kick in shares to help the company meet IPO demand. Floating more shares helps the company obtain a more accurate, and perhaps higher, valuation out of the gate because it helps the IPO attract the biggest institutional investors who wouldn’t bother with an IPO for a small allocation.
In Klarna’s case co-founder CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski did not sell any shares. His stake was worth $1.02 billion at the IPO selling price of $40 and he controls about 7.5% of the company.
Victor Jacobsson, the co-founder who left the company in 2012, did sell but was, and still is, a slightly larger shareholder. He cashed out of 1.1 million shares and still retains over 8% of the company.
Co-founder Niklas Adalberth still owns just under 3 million shares, Klarna disclosed.
Sequoia is by far the biggest investor in Klarna, controlling nearly 23% of the company. Famed VC Michael Moritz wrote Klarna’s first check on Sequoia’s behalf in 2010, and stayed on as Klarna’s chairperson even after he left Sequoia in 2023. Some drama ensued when Sequoia added another member to Klarna’s board. But it eventually sorted itself out when Sequoia’s Andrew Reed joined its board in 2024.
“This moment feels surreal,” Siemiatkowski shared in published remarks. “When we started Klarna back in 2005, it was just a wild idea — me, Niklas, and Victor, fumbling around, trying to make shopping and payments smoother for people. We got rejected left and right, laughed at more times than I can count. But we kept going.”
He continued, “Going public in New York is huge. It’s not just a milestone; it’s a statement. It’s proof that a bunch of stubborn dreamers from Stockholm can take on the world — and win.”
Interestingly, though, $1.4 billion is not the record for the biggest IPO of 2025. That’s still held by CoreWeave, which raised $1.5 billion in June.
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