Stripe Is The Most Expensive Startup In US With $95B Valuation

Payments technology provider Stripe has raised $600 million in additional funding for a $95 billion valuation, making the firm the most valuable startup in the U.S., according to CB Insights, which pegs the company's valuation second only to China's Bytedance in the world. Bytedance is valued at $140 billion. 

Stripe, which is based in San Francisco, California, and Dublin, Ireland, was valued at $36 billion last April when it also raised $600 million. Total funding across 15 rounds is now $2.2 billion, according to Crunchbase. Primary investors in the latest round include Allianz X, Axa, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Co., Sequoia Capital, and Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).

"We're investing a ton more in Europe this year, particularly in Ireland," said John Collison, president and co-founder of Stripe. "Whether in fintech, mobility, retail or SaaS, the growth opportunity for the European digital economy is immense."

The company pointed to hypergrowth European companies like Deliveroo (U.K.), Doctolib (France), Glofox (Ireland), Klarna (Sweden), ManoMano (France), N26 (Germany), UiPath (Romania), and Vinted (Lithuania) that are all conducting transactions using Stripe's platform. Additionally, Axel Springer, Jaguar Land Rover, Maersk, Metro, Mountain Warehouse and Waitrose have all recently deployed Stripe technology.

"Stripe is an accelerator of global economic growth and a leader in sustainable finance. We are convinced that, despite making great progress over the last 10 years, most of Stripe's success is yet to come," said Conor O'Kelly, CEO of NTMA. "We're delighted to back Ireland's and Europe's most prominent success story and in doing so, to help millions of other ambitious companies become more competitive in the global economy."

Stripe competes directly with Paypal PYPL and Square SQ and counts Amazon AMZN, Instacart, Salesforce CRM and Lyft LYFT among its global customers. It sells payment software and like other payment providers, has seen significant growth over the past year as the global COVID-19 pandemic caused a shift in consumers' buying habits, accelerating e-commerce.

Square has a market capitalization of $110 billion and Paypal's market cap is $293 billion.

"We're investing in the infrastructure that will power internet commerce in 2030 and beyond," said Dhivya Suryadevara, Stripe's chief financial officer. "The pandemic taught us many things about society, including how much can be achieved — and paid for — online, but the internet still isn't the engine for global economic progress that it could be. We're laser-focused on helping ambitious businesses grow faster. While Stripe already processes hundreds of billions of dollars per year for millions of businesses worldwide, the opportunity ahead is much larger for Stripe than it was when the company was started 10 years ago."

The new funding will be used to grow its European operations, including its Dublin headquarters, and its global payments and treasury network.

"In 2021, we will double down on our enterprise capabilities, particularly our customer success teams, to help even more large businesses like Twilio or Zapier significantly increase their revenue," said Mike Clayville, Stripe's chief revenue officer. "We will also invest in our global expansion to help companies such as Glofox or MATCHESFASHION increase their market opportunity. And through partnerships with enterprise solutions like Salesforce Commerce Cloud we will make it even easier for large multinationals around the world to switch to Stripe."

Stripe was founded in 2010 by Patrick Collison and his younger brother, John.

Suryadevara told Bloomberg the company wasn't in need of capital as it is "capital efficient."

"I view this as a bit more opportunistic," she said.

Stripe's global payments and treasury network is a programmable infrastructure for global money movement. Already with operations in 42 countries, Stripe plans to expand its payment and treasury network to include businesses in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

Click for more Modern Shipper articles by Brian Straight.

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