Sequoia Capital’s shares of Klarna were valued at more than $3.5 billion following the company’s successful IPO.
Klarna, which operates a buy-now-pay-later service, priced its shares at $40 on Tuesday and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol KLAR on Wednesday. Its share price opened at $52 and ended the day at $45.82.
Sequoia, which is the largest shareholder in the Swedish company, sold 1.8 million shares at the IPO price of $40, according to Klarna’s prospectus. The sale generated proceeds of nearly $73 million, according to Venture Capital Journal’s calculations.
Sequoia continues to own 76.7 million shares worth just over $3.5 billion, assuming the full exercise of the underwriters’ option following the IPO.
The storied VC firm has not said exactly how much it invested in Klarna, but CNBC reports that it invested a total of $500 million. Assuming that amount is correct, Sequoia earned a return of 7x. We won’t know exactly how much the firm earns until it sells its shares, which it is restricted from doing for six months.
Prior to the IPO, Sequoia owned 78.8 million shares via 11 separate funds, Klarna’s prospectus shows. The funds include:
- Sequoia Capital GFIV Sweden (34.2 million shares);
- Sequoia Grove II (17.6 million shares);
- SCGE Fund (4.7 million shares);
- Sequoia Capital Global Growth Fund (6.7 million shares);
- Sequoia Capital US/E Expansion Fund I (6.5 million shares);
- Sequoia Capital Global Growth Fund III – Endurance Partners (6.1 million shares);
- Sequoia Capital U.S. Growth Fund IV (1.7 million shares); and
- Sequoia Capital Global Growth Fund II (1.1 million shares).
Three other funds (Sequoia Capital Global Growth Principals Fund, Sequoia Capital Global Growth II Principals Fund and Sequoia Grove UK) own about 280,000 shares combined.
Other large Klarna shareholders include:
- Heartland A/S, a private holding company controlled by Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, which sold 6.3 million shares in the IPO and held 29.7 million shares afterward,
- Klarna co-founder Victor Jacobsson, who sold 1.1 million shares and continues to own 30 million shares,
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which sold 1.6 million shares and still owns 17.4 million shares, and
- Silver Lake, which sold nearly 2.2 million shares and now owns 14.5 million shares, according to the prospectus.
Venture firms with smaller stakes in Klarna include:
- Atomico, which sold nearly 917,000 shares and now owns 2.5 million shares,
- Harvest Growth Capital, which sold about 567,000 shares and still owns 2.3 million shares, and
- IVP, via Institutional Venture Partners XIV, which sold more than 632,000 and now owns 1.7 million shares.
Founded in 2005, Klarna has raised about $4.2 billion over 23 funding rounds, according to data from Tracxn.
Klarna is the 12th venture-backed company to go public this year. The others are CoreWeave, which hosts GPUs for use by AI companies; eToro Group, a trading platform for crypto and other assets; Hinge Health, a virtual physical therapy provider; MNTN, an advertising platform for TVs connected to internet; Circle Internet Group, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin; Omada Health, a virtual healthcare provider; Voyager Technologies, a defense and space technology company; Chime Financial, a mobile banking services provider; Slide Insurance, an insurance provider; Caris Life Sciences, a cancer drug maker; and Figma, a digital design tools.
