Stripe Valuation Reaches $95 Billion after Recent Fundraising
Stripe, the American-Irish financial services, and software company has recently become the most valuable startup in the U.S. The company’s valuation soared to $95 billion after it raised $600 million in the latest fundraiser.
Stripe’s valuation has nearly tripled over the past year – a feat achieved by international giants such as Facebook and Uber before they went public.
Stripe eyes European expansion
Stripe revealed that the funding will be utilized to expand its business across Europe. The focus will be on Stripe’s European headquarters in Dublin to improve and support its global treasury and payments network.
The latest funding will accelerate Stripe’s growth in Europe. The company announced that it will hire around 1000 people in its headquarters over the next five years.
Some of the key investors include Axa SA, Baillie Gifford, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Co., and Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency.
The growing valuation along with the growing cap table has raised questions about Stripe’s plans in the next few years, particularly if it will include a public listing. Staying distant from the public markets has enabled Stripe to go on about with business without revealing financial details.
Boom in e-commerce and digital payments
In 2020, consumers spent nearly $861.12 billion online with U.S. merchants online, a 44% growth compared to 2019. [1] There was a notable spike in online shopping due to the COVID-19 pandemic which led to an influx of $174.87 billion in e-commerce revenue.
Stripe’s swelling valuation indicates that digital payments and e-commerce activities have surged at an impressive rate over the past couple of years. Apart from Stripe, competitors such as Square, Adyen, and Checkout.com have also reported a rise in their valuation as a result of the growing adoption of digital payments.
Since the start of 2020, nearly 200,000 companies have signed up to Stripe in Europe alone. According to John Collision, Stripe’s systems controlled approximately 5,000 requests per second in 2020 which include customer data checks, refunds, and payments to name a few.
More about Stripe
Stripe is a financial technology company that develops an online economic infrastructure. Stripe was founded in 2010 by siblings John and Patrick Collinson. More than a million companies in more than 120 countries utilize Stripe’s services to scale their businesses.
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Source:
[1] Ali.F (2021) “US e-commerce grows 44.0% in 2020” Digital Commerce 360 [online] available from: https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/us-ecommerce-sales/#:~:text=Consumers%20spent%20%24861.12%20billion%20online,the%2015.1%25%20jump%20in%202019. [accessed Mar 2021]
