Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and Co-Founding father of Swedish fintech Klarna, offers a thumbs up in the course of the firm’s IPO on the New York Inventory Trade in New York Metropolis, U.S., Sept. 10, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Klarna topped Wall Avenue third-quarter income expectations in its first earnings report after debuting on the New York Inventory Trade in September.
Here is how the corporate carried out in comparison with LSEG estimates
- Revenues: $903 million vs. $882 million anticipated
Revenues grew 26% from $706 million within the year-ago interval. The corporate reported a internet lack of $95 million, a drop from a yr in the past when it had internet earnings of $12 million.
The purchase now, pay later agency mentioned it is getting a lift from outsized U.S. progress, the place gross merchandise quantity grew 43% from a yr in the past. Gross merchandise quantity, which measures merchandise offered, rose 25% to $32.7 billion from $26.2 billion final yr.
The adoption of options such because the Klarna Card and honest financing, which provide longer installment choices for greater purchases, contributed to U.S. beneficial properties. The function gives various rates of interest and noticed gross merchandise quantity greater than triple from a yr in the past.
Since its July launch, the fintech agency mentioned its Klarna Card has reached greater than 4 million clients and accounted for 15% of transactions by October.
CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski mentioned honest financing has doubled the variety of customers from a yr in the past, however solely penetrated a few fifth of retailers. That creates “tons of alternative” for Klarna, he instructed CNBC.
“We need to be the one which helps you save time, get monetary savings, be in command of your funds and that is clearly not essentially what we have been related to,” he mentioned, including that Klarna will proceed working to realize that repute.
Retailers grew 38% to 850,000 from 616,000 within the year-ago interval, however common income per energetic buyer declined.
For the fourth quarter, Klarna expects gross merchandise quantity to vary between $37.5 and $38.5 billion and revenues between $1.065 million and $1.08 million.
Transaction margin {dollars}, which measures profitability of its core enterprise, are forecast to vary between $390 million and $400 million. The determine totaled $281 million within the third quarter
Klarna opened on the NYSE about two months in the past, after delaying its preliminary public providing plans in April as President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff plans rattled monetary markets.
In current weeks, shares have taken a tumble as considerations mount over a possible AI bubble with stretched valuations. Worries of a slowdown in client spending have additionally grown.
Klarna shares have shed greater than one-third in worth from their highs.
Siemiatkowski mentioned the corporate is not but seeing “materials variations” in payback or spending habits because of the microenvironment, however is monitoring the AI wave that’s slated to impression extra white collar careers.
Through the years, Klarna has wager large on synthetic intelligence. Siemiatkowski instructed CNBC in Might that the know-how, together with attrition, has helped the fintech agency slash its workforce by 40%.
He mentioned its pure attrition price is as a lot as 20%.
Klarna is not alone. Palantir, Salesforce and Amazon have all warned that they plan to chop their workforces or gradual hiring as a consequence of AI adoption.
Siemiatkowski mentioned AI ties into the corporate’s “customer-obsessed” mentality and has dropped the typical period of time to unravel a customer support challenge to below two minutes.
Corporations that solely use AI or robots to cope with clients are making a “large mistake, since you need to have a human connection,” Siemiatkowski mentioned. “There’s this super worth.”
