Payment giant, Stripe, said it has raised over $6.5 billion in a Series I funding that brought the company’s valuation to $50 billion.
According to Stripe, which acquired Nigeria’s Paystack in 2020, the funds raised will be used to provide liquidity to current and former employees and address employee withholding tax obligations related to equity awards. It added that this would result in the retirement of Stripe shares that will offset the issuance of new shares to Series I investors.
The company emphasized that it “does not need this capital to run its business.”
The investors: Stripe disclosed that the primary investors in the latest round include existing Stripe shareholders—Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, MSD Partners, and Thrive Capital. New investors include GIC, Goldman Sachs Asset and Wealth Management, and Temasek.
Commenting on the fundraise, cofounder and president of Stripe, 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. There’s so much to discover and to create. For us, it’s now back to work.”
The founder and CEO of Thrive Capital, Josh Kushner also said:
- “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 epicentre 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.”
Startups waves: Stripe noted that as traditional businesses have continued to shift online, its enterprise user base has compounded since 2019, and now includes some of the largest global enterprises like Amazon, Ford, Salesforce, BMW, and Maersk. At the same time, the company said it continues to see strong momentum with startups.
- “Founders are starting companies at a historic rate, and Stripe Atlas saw a 155% increase in incorporations from 2019 to 2022. Stripe benefits from the early role it plays in technology waves that reverberate across the industry, like mobile marketplaces, SaaS, and now AI, with users like OpenAI, Anthropic, Midjourney, Copy.ai, CoreWeave, and a long list of others,” the company stated.