FinTech News
Stripe Raises $6.5 Billion, Now Valued at $50 Billion
FinTech giant Stripe has just closed a massive funding round, but is once again cutting its valuation. The online payments company has announced that it’s just raised $6.5 billion. The Series I included participation from returning investors Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, MSD Partners, and Thrive Capital, while new investors GIC, Goldman Sachs Asset and Wealth Management, and Temasek also joined.
Goldman Sachs served as sole placement agent on the transaction and J.P. Morgan acted as a financial advisor. To date, the company has now raised a total of $8.7 billion. Notably, the latest round valued the company at $50 billion — which, as TechCrunch notes, is actually down from a $95 billion valuation in March 2021.
According to the company’s press release, the newly raised funds will be used to provide liquidity to current and former employees as well as “address employee withholding tax obligations related to equity awards, resulting in the retirement of Stripe shares that will offset the issuance of new shares to Series I investors.” However, they note the new capital is not needed for Stripe to run its business.
Commenting on the current state of Stripe, cofounder and president John Collison said, “Over the last 12 years, current and former Stripes have helped build foundational economic infrastructure for millions of businesses around the world, and this transaction gives them the opportunity to access the value they’ve helped create. But the internet economy is still young, and the opportunities of the next 12 years will dwarf those of the recent past.” Collison added, “There’s so much to discover and to create. For us, it’s now back to work.”
Additionally, Thrive Capital founder and CEO Josh Kushner said of the company, “Stripe’s strategy is inherently indexed to secular trends that will only compound for decades to come: the growth of the internet economy and the trajectories of the world’s most innovative and forward-looking companies. Stripe will continue to be at the epicenter of every new technology current, and is the de facto choice for the businesses and builders that are creating the future. This is why we first invested in Stripe in 2014, and why we are proud to deepen our partnership.”
Despite the falling valuation, some of the figures Stripe cites in their latest release show just how big the company has become. For one, more than 100 businesses now use Stripe to handle upwards of $1 billion in payments per year. Moreover, the company notes that 75% of these companies utilize the Stripe platform for more than just payments. Of course, just from a numbers perspective, $6.5 billion is a tremendous funding round. Ultimately, while this news and other developments as of late have been a mixed bag for Stripe, the company remains a powerhouse that seems to be on a path to further success.
