Klarna

Klarna raised $1 billion at $45.6 billion in June 2021 from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at the absolute peak of the zero-interest-rate BNPL bubble, then took a $6.7 billion down round in July 2022 — an 85% markdown in thirteen months that remains one of the largest private-market repricings on record. The September 2025 NYSE listing at $14.6 billion is being framed as a recovery, but it is a 68% discount to the 2021 valuation that SoftBank, Silver Lake, Sequoia, and a dozen crossover funds underwrote with conviction. The underlying business has improved — 2024 revenue of roughly $2.8 billion with a thin first annual profit after years of credit losses — but the structural problems that triggered the original collapse have not been solved. CFPB classified BNPL providers as credit-card-equivalent lenders in 2024, the EU Consumer Credit Directive subjects every transaction to affordability checks starting 2026, and the UK FCA is finalizing rules that will force underwriting parity with revolving credit. Apple killed its competing product, but Affirm trades at a lower revenue multiple with better US distribution, and Block's Afterpay is bundled into Square's merchant base for free. Credit losses are rising in lockstep with consumer debt stress. The IPO priced Klarna at roughly 5.2x revenue — half of Affirm and a third of what comparable European fintech IPOs received at peak. The market has already adjudicated this one.

VERDICT: TERMINAL HYPE — KLARNA RAISED AT $45.6 BILLION IN 2021 AND IPOd AT $14.6 BILLION FOUR YEARS LATER, A 68% HAIRCUT VALIDATED BY THE PUBLIC MARKET ITSELF