American fintech Stripe, a specialist in online payments, has raised $600 million. Its valuation has now tripled to $95 billion.
Growth boosted by the health crisis
11 years after its creation, fintech Stripe has become the biggest American "decacorne", a term referring to unlisted startups valued at more than $10 billion. In 2020, Stripe attracted 200,000 new business customers, and enabled 5,000 transactions per second.
With the completion of a new fundraising round on Sunday March 14, the fintech has seen its valuation rise to $95 billion, compared with $36 billion before this operation. Investors include Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Baillie Gifford, Allianz X and Axa.
Stripe's growth has been accelerated by the health crisis, which has led to a boom in digital payments and e-commerce. Adyen, its European competitor, saw its transactions increase by 30% in 2020, and its revenues by 28%. As for French fintech Wordline, it grew by 20.2% last year.
Towards an IPO for fintech Stripe?
In a recent press release, Stripe explains that it intends to use these funds to expand further in Europe, and more specifically in Dublin, through the recruitment of 1,000 people over a 5-year period. The fintech is also targeting a number of emerging markets, including Indonesia, Brazil and India.
Its valuation is higher than that of giants Facebook and Uber when they went public, with $80 billion for the former and $72 billion for the latter. Is Stripe planning to do the same in the near future?
In any case, it has recently taken on some well-known names from the finance sector, such as Dhivya Suryadevara, former CFO of General Motors, and Mark Carney, former head of the Bank of England, who have both joined Stripe's board.