Stripe, which builds economic infrastructure for the internet, has raised a $600 million (€500 million) funding round at a $95billion (€80billion) valuation. Primary investors include Allianz X, Axa, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Sequoia Capital, and Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).
The company will use the capital to invest in its European operations, and its Dublin headquarters in particular, support surging demand from enterprise heavyweights across Europe and expand its Global Payments and Treasury Network.
Investing in Europe
Of the 42 countries in which Stripe powers businesses today, 31 are in Europe. And many of the continent’s largest and fastest-growing companies are building on the platform.
Axel Springer, Jaguar Land Rover, Maersk, Metro, Mountain Warehouse and Waitrose have all recently turned to Stripe to grow and diversify their online revenue, or move faster on their transformation projects. Meanwhile, Europe’s hypergrowth companies such as Deliveroo (UK), Doctolib (France), Glofox (Ireland), Klarna (Sweden), ManoMano (France), N26 (Germany), UiPath (Romania) or Vinted (Lithuania) all build on Stripe to compete on the global stage.
“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.”
“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.”
The fintech market is real
ComplyAdvantage Founder and CEO Charles Delingpole said: “Stripe’s $95billion shows that fintech, for all its hype, is real. With Square at $110bn and Paypal at $290bn, “fintech” companies are now breathing down the neck of, if not eclipsing traditional incumbents like Goldman Sachs with its $120bn market cap.
“That a company founded in 2010 can in 11 years be worth more than traditional giants founded in 1869, shows that growth investors can secure investments at wildly discounted prices when viewed from a 5-year perspective. It doesn’t necessarily mean that investors will always get it right – some revenue projections smack of hubris and are ill-judged. But it’s not whether you’re right or wrong that’s important, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong. For investors, the upside on the winning companies is wildly unlimited, as the Stripe valuation shows.
“What’s evident is that the market for fintech is far larger and far more profitable than many imagined, and when the alternative is a negative-yielding government bond, investors can just not get enough of the companies like Stripe that are growing bigger, faster and more capital efficiently than any traditionalist would have previously imagined.”
Dr. Nazim Cetin, CEO of Allianz X, said: “The innovation that Stripe has brought to the online economy over the past decade is astounding. By taking a tech-first approach and making payment processing more accessible, Stripe has paved the way for entirely new business models. In Allianz, Stripe has an experienced partner for global financial services. We are excited to help Stripe further its expansion here in Europe and around the world.”
Reinforcing enterprise leadership
Stripe now counts more than 50 category leaders—companies processing more than $1 billion each annually—as customers. Enterprise revenue is now both Stripe’s largest and its fastest-growing segment, more than doubling year over year.
Recently, Stripe was also named a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Merchant Payments Providers, Q3 2020, achieving the highest scores of any company ranked.
“Most people underappreciate Stripe’s global scale and leading ability to serve the most complex enterprise customers,” said Timothy Chiodo Head of Payments and Fintech Research at Crédit Suisse. ”Stripe’s global scale and market reach continues to expand and they are now a leader (and gaining meaningful share) in the enterprise segment.”
“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.”
