The text below reflects on when Klarna was one of the fintech stars of the 2021 hype era, but at the time, many considered the valuation to be too high. According to the author, the situation has changed; the IPO took place in 2025 at around $57, but the share price has since collapsed to about $15.
The author emphasizes that Klarna is no longer just a “buy now, pay later” service, but has expanded into a digital bank featuring cards, savings accounts, a shopping app, and even its own advertising platform.
The company now has 118 million users and nearly a million merchants; furthermore, revenue grew to approximately $3.5 billion last year. Growth is also supported by AI, which has reportedly helped cut costs drastically.
According to the author, the market may now be too pessimistic; the company is still growing rapidly and has plenty of cash on the balance sheet. He admits that there are certainly risks, such as credit losses, competition, and regulation, but at current prices, he believes the risk-reward ratio looks attractive.
I’ve been watching Klarna for years. It was one of those European tech stories that everybody talked about during the 2021 hype cycle, when Softbank and others pumped the valuation to almost $46 billion. Back then I stayed away – the numbers didn’t add up at that price. Fast forward to March 2026: Klarna IPO’d in September 2025 near $57 per share, the stock has since crashed to roughly $15.70, the market cap sits at around $6 billion, and suddenly the math looks very different.
I want to be transparent: I bought Klarna shares in the $13–14 range for both the Wikifolio and the Haas invest4 innovation fund. That position is already slightly in the green, but let me walk you through why I believe this is one of the more compelling fintech setups on the market right now, and also why this opportunity exists in the first place.