Two Once-Broken IPOs Could Stage a Major Comeback in 2026 — Here's Why

The IPO Market’s Underperformers Are Starting to Look Like Bargains

2025 has been a mixed year for newly listed stocks. While the broader market has surged, not every recent IPO debut has caught fire. StubHub (NYSE: STUB) and Klarna Group (NYSE: KLAR) are prime examples—both trading significantly below their IPO prices just months after listing. Yet beneath the surface, these companies show surprising resilience and growth potential that could reward patient investors in 2026.

StubHub: A Ticket Resale Leader Learning to Bounce Back

StubHub’s journey is anything but straightforward. Founded in 2000 by Stanford MBAs Eric Baker and Jeff Fluhr to solve a simple problem—finding hard-to-get event tickets—the platform became a cornerstone of live entertainment commerce. eBay acquired it in 2007, then sold it back to Baker’s Viagogo in 2020 for $4 billion in what seemed like terrible timing: weeks later, COVID-19 shuttered live venues worldwide.

Today, StubHub operates in a vastly different position than when it was acquired five years ago as a much smaller player. The numbers tell the story. In 2019, before the pandemic, StubHub generated $211.6 million in revenue. Trailing revenue now stands at $1.8 billion—nearly a ninefold increase. The IPO price of $23.50 in September valued the company at $8 billion, but the stock’s subsequent decline has pushed the market cap to $4.3 billion.

On the surface, revenue deceleration looks concerning for the fourth straight year. But dig deeper and the picture brightens. The most recent quarter showed 8% revenue growth alongside a robust 19% jump in gross merchandise sales. Analysts project a 47% revenue surge for 2026, and forward earnings valuations sit at just 10 times net income per share—suggesting the market has priced in significant pessimism.

Scale advantages remain StubHub’s biggest moat. It’s growing faster than Live Nation Entertainment and Vivid Seats, making it the outperformer among publicly traded ticketing platforms. Regulatory headwinds exist—including potential U.K. restrictions on above-face-value ticket resales—but they’re unlikely to derail a company with economies of scale in its favor.

Klarna: A Buy Now, Pay Later Leader in a Consolidating Market

The buy now, pay later (BNPL) sector has generated several recent IPOs, and Klarna went public at $40 just three months ago. Currently trading 22% below that price, Klarna entered the public markets as the global economy embraced merchant financing solutions.

The growth narrative is compelling. Revenue climbed 28% in Klarna’s first quarter as a public company, or 25% on a like-for-like basis when adjusting for currency effects. Core markets like the U.S. and Europe showed even faster expansion. Despite beating expectations, the stock initially declined on earnings—a common pattern for newly public companies still establishing credibility with the investment community.

Klarna’s business model hinges on volume. It processed $32.7 billion in gross merchandise volume while generating $903 million in revenue in its latest quarter. Individual merchant take rates are thin, but they compound across millions of transactions globally. The company continues expanding its merchant network and deploying artificial intelligence tools to strengthen connections between shoppers and merchants.

In a sector likely to experience consolidation, Klarna appears positioned as a potential consolidator rather than a target. Its technology, scale, and merchant relationships suggest it will be among the survivors as the BNPL market matures.

The Case for 2026

Both companies carry the scars of difficult market debuts, but broken IPO prices don’t necessarily reflect broken businesses. StubHub offers value-oriented investors growth potential fueled by post-pandemic recovery and market share gains. Klarna, meanwhile, stands at the forefront of a fintech trend that’s fundamentally reshaping how consumers finance purchases.

The trust that gets broken in IPOs often gets rebuilt when fundamentals catch up to market expectations. For these two, that moment could arrive sooner than skeptics expect.