Buy now, pay later online payment provider Klarna began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Its IPO was priced at $40, which valued Klarna at about $15 billion, but opened at $52 per share in its debut.
“To me, it really just is a milestone,” Klarna’s co-founder and CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, told CNBC on Wednesday. “It’s a little bit like a wedding. You prepare so much, and you plan for it, and it’s a big party. But in the end, marriage goes on.”
Meanwhile, just a few days before the IPO, Klarna, which was founded in 2005, told employees that it is joining Microsoft, Target, and other companies in mandating a return-to-office schedule (RTO) — in Klarna’s case, three days a week in the office starting September 29.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski, chief executive officer and co-founder of Klarna Holding AB, during the company’s initial public offering (IPO) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Michael Nagle/Bloomberg | Getty Images
Related: ‘A Game Changer’: Klarna Becomes Walmart’s Exclusive Buy-Now-Pay-Later Provider
According to a Slack post seen by Business Insider, Klarna posted the news on an internal message board, but comments were disabled. Emoji reactions, however, were not.
According to the outlet, around 3,000 Klarna workers saw the post, and responses included a sad face (341), a “no” emoji (167), sweat-faced and sad (149), sad cat (131), facepalm (90), crying (86), clown face (73), and a “this sucks” (41) emoji.
There were also some custom creations: the “Homer Simpson backing into a bush” meme emoji (62), a “Hide the Pain Harold” meme emoji (43), and a child going down a slide saying “bye” (17).
Related: Klarna’s CEO Used an AI Clone of Himself to Report Quarterly Earnings. Here’s Why.
Still, not everyone hated the news; there were 19 thumbs-up emojis and 14 rocket ship emojis, Business Insider notes.
In June, Klarna announced that it was launching a debit card called the “Klarna Card.” Siemiatkowski told CNBC that the company has signed up 700,000 card customers in the U.S. so far, with a waiting list of five million people.
Buy now, pay later online payment provider Klarna began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Its IPO was priced at $40, which valued Klarna at about $15 billion, but opened at $52 per share in its debut.
“To me, it really just is a milestone,” Klarna’s co-founder and CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, told CNBC on Wednesday. “It’s a little bit like a wedding. You prepare so much, and you plan for it, and it’s a big party. But in the end, marriage goes on.”
Meanwhile, just a few days before the IPO, Klarna, which was founded in 2005, told employees that it is joining Microsoft, Target, and other companies in mandating a return-to-office schedule (RTO) — in Klarna’s case, three days a week in the office starting September 29.
The rest of this article is locked.
Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.