Klarna opens at $52 per share in NYSE debut after pricing IPO above range

Klarna shares popped 30% successful their New York Stock Exchange debut Wednesday, opening astatine $52, aft the Swedish online lender priced its IPO supra its expected range.

The company, known for its fashionable bargain now, wage aboriginal products, priced shares astatine $40 on Tuesday, raising $1.37 cardinal for the institution and existing shareholders. The offering valued Klarna astatine astir $15 billion.

The IPO marks the latest successful a increasing database of high-profile tech IPOs this year, suggesting increased request from Wall Street for caller offerings. Companies similar stablecoin issuer Circle and plan bundle level Figma soared successful their respective debuts. Meanwhile, crypto speech Gemini is expected to spell nationalist aboriginal this week.

"To me, it truly conscionable is simply a milestone," Klarna's co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told CNBC successful an interrogation connected Wednesday. "It's a small spot similar a wedding. You hole truthful overmuch and you program for it and it's a large party. But successful the extremity — matrimony goes on."

Klarna's introduction into the nationalist markets volition trial Wall Street's excitement astir the absorption of its business. The institution has successful caller months talked up its determination into banking, rolling retired a debit paper and idiosyncratic deposit accounts successful the U.S.

Klarna has signed 700,000 paper customers successful the U.S. truthful acold and has 5 cardinal radical connected a waiting database seeking entree to the product, Siemiatkowski told CNBC. He added that Klarna Card represents a antithetic proposition to rival fintech Affirm's paper offering, which has attracted 2 cardinal users since its motorboat successful 2021.

"We're attracting a somewhat antithetic assemblage possibly than the Affirm card," Siemiatkowski said. "I get the content that is much a paper wherever radical usage it simply to beryllium capable to person financing with involvement connected somewhat higher tickets."

In summation to Affirm, Klarna besides competes with Afterpay, which was acquired for $29 cardinal successful 2021 by Square, present a portion of Block.

Klarna faces immoderate imaginable regulatory headwinds. In the U.K., the authorities has projected caller rules to bring BNPL loans nether ceremonial oversight to code affordability concerns regarding the market.

The IPO is poised to make billions of dollars successful returns for immoderate of Klarna's long-time investors. Existing shareholders are offering the bulk of Klarna shares— 28.8 cardinal — connected the nationalist market. At its IPO terms of $40, that translates to implicit $1.2 billion. Meanwhile, Klarna raised $222 cardinal from the IPO.

Sequoia, which archetypal backed successful Klarna successful 2010, has invested $500 cardinal successful total. The task steadfast sold 2 cardinal of its 79 cardinal shares successful the IPO, meaning it's generated an wide instrumentality of about $2.65 billion, based connected the connection price.

Andrew Reed, a spouse astatine Sequoia, told CNBC that helium was inactive successful assemblage erstwhile Sequoia made its archetypal concern successful an "alternative payments institution successful Stockholm." The aboriginal work, helium said, was astir expanding successful Europe.

"Being present successful New York 15 years aboriginal with implicit 100 cardinal consumers and implicit $100 cardinal of GMV [gross merchandise value] and adjacent to a cardinal merchants, it is staggering what 1 twelvemonth aft different of execution and maturation and Sebastian's semipermanent imaginativeness tin do," Reed said.

Another Klarna capitalist hasn't been truthful lucky. Japan's SoftBank led a 2021 backing circular successful Klarna astatine a $46 cardinal valuation and has since seen the worth of its involvement plunge significantly.

WATCH: CNBC's interrogation with Klarna CEO Sebastian Siematkowski