After reports that Stripe raised even more money, the payment giant has now confirmed the details. The company closed an additional $ 600 million on a $ 95 billion worth.
Stripe said it will use the funds to expand its business in Europe with a focus on its European headquarters and strengthen its global payments and treasury network.
“We’re investing a ton more in Europe this year, particularly Ireland,” said John Collison, President and Co-Founder of Stripe, in a statement. “Whether in the areas of fintech, mobility, retail or SaaS – the growth opportunities for the European digital economy are immense.”
Stripe said the funding included helping two major insurance companies. Allianz is in the round through its Allianz X-Fonds and Axa, together with Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Sequoia Capital and an investor from the founder’s home country, the Irish National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).
The insurance angle can show which direction the company is looking to go next. After all, fintech and insurance are closely linked.
“Stripe is an accelerator of global economic growth and a leader in sustainable finance. We believe that despite the great strides made over the past 10 years, most of Stripe’s success is yet to come, ”said Conor O’Kelly, CEO of NTMA, in a statement. “We are excited to support Ireland and Europe’s greatest success story, helping millions of other ambitious companies become more competitive in the global economy.”
The big round, rising valuation, and growing cap will inevitably lead to questions about where the company stands in relation to its next steps and whether this will involve a public listing. Stripe has long had its cards under control in terms of user numbers, sales, and profits, and these details are not being released on the news today, nor have any comments been made on IPO plans.
Notably, the confirmation of today’s news has a lower valuation than the valuation at which Stripe was reportedly traded in the secondary market, which was $ 115 billion. and it was also rumored that the round, which ended on a valuation of $ 95 billion, would take place on a higher figure of over $ 100 billion.
It’s not clear if these numbers were never accurate, or if Covid had an impact on pricing, or if European investors just got a tough deal.
The focus on growth in Europe also puts the hiring of Peter Barron – former EMEA vice president of communications at Google and former journalist – into context.
Founded in 2010 by John and his brother Patrick Collison (the CEO), Stripe is one of a wave of commerce startups who saw the value of having an easy way for developers to incorporate payments into any app or website over a few lines of code at a time when digital and specifically online payments began to take off.
Behind that code, the company had done the hard work integrating all of the diverse and complex elements required to make payments work both within countries and across borders. Over the years the company has built a larger platform on it, a suite of services to position itself as a one-stop-shop rather than just helping companies do all the commercial aspects of their business including inclusion, fraud management, cash flow Management and more.
Within that, Stripe has built a decent presence in Europe, with the region accounting for 31 of the 42 countries that it has customers today. While Stripe may have had its beginning and early traction to provide payment infrastructure for startups (and small, new startups in particular), this list includes many big names today too. Customers in Europe include Axel Springer, Jaguar Land Rover, Maersk, Metro, Mountain Warehouse and Waitrose as well as Deliveroo (Great Britain), Doctolib (France), Glofox (Ireland), Klarna (Sweden), ManoMano (France) and N26 (Germany) )), UiPath (Romania) and Vinted (Lithuania).
Even with strong competition in payments and related services, there is a tremendous opportunity for more growth. Stripe says that following Covid and the advent of people shopping significantly more through the internet and apps than in person, around 14% of trading is currently online, a big shift considering it was around 10% a year ago. were.