Stripe Gets New Funding From Payments, Investing Heavyweights

Online payments startup Stripe is getting financial backing from a round of investors to accelerate its push into the global payments arena.

The New York Times reported today (July 28) that the company had garnered funding from Sequoia Capital, Visa and American Express, in an as-yet unquantified investment round that values the company at roughly $5 billion. Though the exact amount raised was unspecified, NYT reported that Stripe’s CEO Patrick Collison described it as “less than $100 million.”

Stripe’s previous investment round, just six months ago, raised $70 million and valued the California-based tech outfit at $3.5 billion.

The rapid rise in valuation comes as the five-year-old company seeks to expand its presence serving small and mid-sized businesses, many of whom have not yet signed on to take credit cards or debit cards. And under its business model, Stripe gets its top line from charging a small percentage per transaction conducted using its technology, which includes, through its credit card reader, the ability to complete contactless mobile payments.

The investment by American Express furthers a relationship that saw the two companies develop what NYT termed a “PayPal-like buy button,” which debuted as a feature available to online merchants earlier in July. That feature comes on top of the recent introduction of Stripe Connect (for smaller merchants and also acting in concert with Facebook and Twitter “buy buttons”) and a one-click platform that enables payments across mobile devices and standalone computers.

In past funding rounds, the company had secured investments from Sequoia Capital and individual investors with deep pockets and technology expertise, including Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. The company is active in more than 20 countries around the globe and recently debuted a beta program in Japan.

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