Klarna reported revenue of USD 903 million for the third quarter of 2025, a 26% increase year-on-year that surpassed consensus estimates and marked the Swedish buy-now-pay-later company's debut as a publicly listed entity. The results, published on 18 November 2025, set an early benchmark for the company's performance under the scrutiny that accompanies quarterly public market reporting obligations.
The first post-IPO earnings release attracted considerable attention from investors and analysts alike, both as a gauge of Klarna's underlying business momentum and as an indicator of how the company intends to communicate its financial progress to public shareholders. The beat against consensus on the headline revenue figure provided an encouraging opening to its public reporting history.
US MARKET GMV SURGES 43%
The standout metric in Klarna's third-quarter results was the performance of its United States business, where gross merchandise value grew 43% year-on-year. The US is strategically the most consequential geography for Klarna's global ambitions, and the pace of GMV expansion there signals that the company's consumer and merchant acquisition efforts are gaining meaningful traction in a market that European fintechs have historically found difficult to crack at scale.
Klarna Card and the company's fair financing products were identified as key drivers of US adoption. The Klarna Card extends the company's relationship with consumers beyond individual point-of-sale credit decisions into a more persistent payment credential, broadening the range of use cases and the frequency of engagement. Fair financing, which covers instalment-based products with defined repayment schedules and transparent pricing, addresses a segment of the consumer credit market that conventional card products do not always serve efficiently, giving Klarna a differentiated value proposition for cost-conscious American borrowers.
The 43% GMV growth figure is particularly notable given the depth of incumbent payment and credit infrastructure in the United States. Visa, Mastercard, and established card-issuing banks have long-standing consumer relationships that new entrants must overcome, and Klarna's growth rate suggests it is making meaningful inroads despite that competitive intensity.
ELLIOTT BACKS US SCALING WITH USD 6.5 BILLION LOAN ACQUISITION
Providing a material underpinning for Klarna's US expansion strategy is a commitment by Elliott Investment Management to acquire USD 6.5 billion in fair financing loans originated by Klarna. The arrangement delivers a capital-light pathway for Klarna to scale its lending volumes in the United States without proportionally expanding its own balance sheet, allowing the company to grow origination capacity while managing capital requirements within the constraints that public market investors and regulators impose on a listed fintech lender.
Elliott's participation reflects the growing appetite of institutional credit investors for consumer fintech loan portfolios, where standardised digital origination processes and large behavioural data sets are seen as advantages over traditional lending infrastructure. For Klarna, securing a committed buyer of this scale for its US loan book removes a meaningful capital constraint on the pace of growth. The third-quarter results — combining the headline revenue beat, the US GMV acceleration, and the Elliott facility — present a picture of a company that entered the public markets with strong momentum in its most strategically important geography and a funding structure designed to sustain that momentum into future quarters.