Payments Dive
Buy now, pay later provider Klarna may be preparing for an initial public offering, but the market likely wants to see the company deliver profits more consistently before it takes that leap, investors said.
Stockholm-based Klarna, which has amassed about 37 million U.S. users, is one of the bigger IPO candidates in the payments and fintech world. Still, the timing of its public debut has been ambiguous, said Rudy Yang, a senior research analyst focused on fintech at PitchBook. Other later-stage, privately-held startups expected to IPO include Stripe and Plaid.
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has signaled that the company’s public offering of shares could occur “quite soon,” although the company hasn’t pinned down exactly when or where Klarna will IPO, Bloomberg reported.
Klarna is reported to be in talks with banks for a $20 billion U.S. IPO, potentially in the third quarter of this year, according to Bloomberg, which cited unnamed sources. Recently, the company has run into boardroom drama with one of its investors, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, and reported tension between Siemiatkowski and Klarna co-founder Victor Jacobsson.
When contacted Tuesday, a Klarna spokesperson said no IPO “timing or location has been set,” and declined to comment.
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