In a recent forecast of activity in the initial public offering (IPO) market, Renaissance Capital said a "long-awaited … rebound is here."
A spring freeze sparked by uncertainty about President Donald Trump's aggressive tariff policies quickly thawed over the summer with successful offerings from names such as crypto company Bullish (BLSH) and design software company Figma (FIG), which raised $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively.
Overall, there have been 144 IPOs priced in 2025 through September 10, up more than 53% from the year prior. Total proceeds raised from these filings are at $24 billion, up 3.1% from the year-ago period.
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"Heading into the fall season, we expect the fastest pace of deal activity since 2021, as more companies accelerate listing plans amid the current momentum," says Renaissance Capital in its fall 2025 U.S. IPO preview (PDF).
The IPO experts go on to say that, "While recent enthusiasm has centered around high-growth industries like tech, fintech, AI and crypto, the IPO backlog comprises a wealth of different sectors, featuring biotechs, restaurants, banks and energy companies."
Among the most notable companies to finally go public is Swedish buy now, pay later firm Klarna (KLAR), which began trading on September 10 after pausing its IPO plans earlier this year.
On September 2, Klarna noted its intention to sell roughly 34.3 million shares from $35 to $37 apiece. And then on September 9, the company officially priced its IPO above this initial range, at $40 per share, raising $1.37 billion in its offering — which makes it one of the biggest IPOs of the year.
Klarna's prospectus also indicates that its Class B shares, which are only available to current stakeholders such as co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski and venture capital firm Sequoia, will be entitled to 10 votes per share, while its common stock will account for one vote each.
How much is Klarna worth?
Klarna's offering price put its valuation around $15 billion. And after its first-day performance, which saw KLAR stock open at $52, hit an intraday high of $57.20 and close at $45.82, its market cap was north of $17.3 billion.
Still, this is a far cry from June 2021, when its valuation hit $45.6 billion in a funding round led by SoftBank.
But Phil Haslett, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Equityzen says KLAR's market debut "is actually the ideal scenario for a company: a modest uplift on day one signals the offering was priced correctly and that there's genuine excitement for the business. Overall, it looks like a solid start."
Should you buy the Klarna IPO?
"An initial public offering enables a private company to 'go public,' or start trading in public markets, by issuing its own shares on a stock exchange for the first time. In this way, any investor can buy shares and the company can raise capital to grow," Kiplinger contributing writer Tom Taulli writes in his article, "What Is an Initial Public Offering (IPO)?".
But buyer beware: IPOs can be volatile — especially for retail investors. While new stocks tend to have strong first-day showings, returns for the first year are generally weak, says the team of analysts at Trivariate Research, a market research firm based in New York.
As for retail investors, whether or not you buy the Klarna shares comes down to your own risk tolerance and personal investing goals. If you do decide to buy KLAR stock in these first few weeks after its IPO, do so in a small amount that you can afford to lose and have a trading plan in place.
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