In late November, the Wall Street Journal broke the news that Stripe, a San Francisco payments processing startup, had raised $150 million. A deal co-led by General Catalyst Partners and CapitalG (formerly Google Capital). The startup was valued at $9.2 billion in its latest funding round and isn’t focused on an initial public offering.
That’s just shy of double the $5 billion valuation it had achieved in 2015, when a group of institutional investors including Visa handed over $80 million. Stripe was, and remains, the most valuable financial technology startup.
In 2016, the company announced the launch of Atlas, a program to help entrepreneurs all over the world. Moreover, Stripe Radar, a new anti-fraud tool, bolstered the company’s offerings to big businesses.
Target, SAP, the NFL, and both presidential campaigns used Stripe’s services to power some of the payments processing.
In 2016, Stripe spent a lot of its money and time on recruiting new leadership from companies like Amazon and Twitter. Even, it invested its engineering know-how in the behind-the-scenes infrastructure stuff that keeps the company running smoothly. The new money is going toward furthering its international expansion.
Legendary Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia Capital has invested in Stripe in every single one of its 7 funding rounds. It’s a clear sign that the firm remains confident there’s room for Stripe to keep growing privately.
So, as a cash-efficient business, Stripe’s challenge is less about raising further capital. Indeed, the challenge is making sure that the company is keeping its engineers and product teams focused in the right direction.
Source: Business Insider (12/22)
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