Stripe

Stripe is an American technology company that develops solutions for receiving and processing electronic payments. The startup was founded on September 29, 2011 by immigrants from Ireland brothers John and Patrick Collison. The company's headquarters by April 2020 is located in San Francisco.

History

2022: Conducting pilot payments in cryptocurrency to content authors

Twitter and the digital payment processing service Stripe will conduct pilot payments in cryptocurrency for some users of content monetization products. This became known on April 26, 2022. More details here.

2021: Increase in company valuation to $95 billion

On March 14, 2021, Stripe announced the attraction of $600 million in investments. According to the results of this round, the company strengthened the status of the most expensive startup in Silicon Valley, receiving an estimate of $95 billion. This is more than double the indicator of the previous investment transaction.

Several large funds took part in the next round of investments in Stripe, as well as the National Financial Management Agency of Ireland (operator of the country's sovereign wealth fund). Investor shares are not disclosed.

Silicon Valley's most expensive startup now costs $95 billion

According to The Wall Street Journal, the growth of online trade during the period of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic made Stripe products, which were already quite popular, even more popular. Among the company's customers are the DoorDash food delivery service, the Shopify online store platform, as well as the Wayfair furniture and home goods online store, whose sales have grown sharply in the pandemic.

Stripe said that by March 2021, the company processes payments worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year for millions of businesses around the world and that it counts more than 50 companies as customers, each of which uses Stripe to process more than $1 billion a year.

Now the size of Stripe is larger than the e-commerce market as a whole at the time of the creation of the company, "said Divya Suryadevara, financial director of the company, commenting on the results of the investment transaction.

According   to the Financial Times, Stripe became the third in the list of the most highly rated company in the world. The first place is taken by ByteDance (owner of the social network TikTok), which is estimated at $180 billion.

 Stripe intends to  use the raised $600 million to expand its activities in Europe, including increasing the number of employees in the office in Dublin by 1000 people over the next five years and launching a service  in Brazil, India and Indonesia by the end of 2021.^[1]

2020: Raising $600 million and company valuation of $35 billion

In mid-April 2020, it became known about attracting Stripe about $600 million in investments. According to the results of the financing round, the company was valued at $36 billion, which makes it the most expensive startup in Silicon Valley. This is more than the cost of Palantir Technologies and Airbnb.

Several investors invested in Stripe, including Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, GV (Alphabet) and Sequoia Capital. The technology company intends to spend the funds raised on product development, expanding the geography of activities, increasing the number of staff and implementing strategic initiatives.

It became known about attracting Stripe about $600 million in investments

According to Reuters in a publication on investments in Stripe, investor interest in fintech companies grew even before the start of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. This crisis has dramatically increased the demand for digital financial and payment services that do not require going to a bank or store. Venture investors are confident that this trend will continue after COVID-19 is defeated, so financial technology and service developers look very promising.

According to numerous rumors in the press, Stripe will enter the exchange in 2020. The company itself confirmed plans for an IPO, but did not name any dates.

Stripe founder and president John Collison said in April 2020 that the company cannot retreat, and even more needs to be invested in the platform.^[2]

2018: Raising $245 million and company valuation $20 billion

In September 2018, Stripe closed an investment round of $245 million, as a result of which the company's valuation increased from $9 billion to $20 billion.

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