Payments company Stripe has raised $600 million in a Series H funding round including investments from Allianz X, Axa, Baillie Gifford, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company and Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency. The company is now valued at $95 million, the most valuable U.S. start-up, according to The New York Times. This is almost triple the company’s last valuation at $35 billion in September 2019.
Investments in European operations
In a March 14, 2021 news release, Stripe said it will use the money to invest in its European operations, including its Dublin headquarters. It will also expand its global payments and treasury network. Stripe is used in 42 countries, 31 of which are in Europe. In addition, Stripe plans to be available in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Thailand and United Arab Emirates, supporting millions of businesses with its platform.
“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.”
Growth accelerator
Axel Springer, Jaguar Land Rover, Maersk, Metro, Mountain Warehouse and Waitrose are among Stripe’s newer clients. Other clients like Deliveroo in the U.K., Klarna in Sweden and N26 in Germany are using the Stripe platform to support their international businesses.
“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.”
Planning for the future
Dhivya Suryadevara, Stripe’s chief financial officer, said they are investing in infrastructure that will power online commerce through 2030 and beyond.
“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,” Suryadevara said.
Enterprise operations
Stripe supports over 50 companies who each process more than $1 billion each, making the enterprise categories one of Stripe’s largest opportunities for growth. The company plans to further expand its capacity to serve the needs of enterprise customers.
“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.”
Insider Take
According to Stripe, only 14% of commerce occurs online, despite the acceleration of online shopping during the pandemic. With the additional funding, and financial backing and support of international companies, Stripe has the power and the potential to help increase that percentage and grow its market share in the process.
