Stripe Raises $250M At $35B Valuation

FinTech Stripe is raising $250 million in its latest funding round and has reached a pre-money valuation of $35 billion, according to a release on Thursday (Sept. 19). 

General Catalyst, Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz all participated in the round. Stripe said it’s going to use the funding to continue growing its product suite, extend its enterprise capabilities and continue to grow internationally. 

Stripe is keenly interested in areas outside of North America and Western Europe, as about 5 out of 6 new users on the internet come from those other areas. The company recently launched in eight new countries: Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Slovenia, with more planned in the coming months. 

Stripe said that eventually it hopes to serve 40 countries that encompass about 70 percent of the global economy, with more planned for next year. 

The firm also wants to expand its product stack, which includes the Global Payments and Treasury Network (GPTN) and services like Connect, Billing, Terminal and Radar.

Stripe also recently announced some new products: Stripe Capital is meant to help getting business funds easier, and the Stripe Corporate Card was created to help with corporate spending. It also added the ability for instant payouts to all Stripe accounts in the U.S.

“Stripe will continue to invest heavily in the GPTN, as well as our suite of additional software and services, to help our users around the world grow their own companies faster,” the company said.

Stripe works with businesses like Wayfair, Airbnb, Twilio, GitHub and The RealReal. The company said that its user base is growing in two directions with entrepreneurs on one side, and complex international business organizations on the other. 

“Even now, in 2019, less than 8 percent of commerce happens online,” said Stripe President and Co-Founder John Collison. “We’re investing now to build the infrastructure that’ll power internet commerce in 2030 and beyond. If we get it right, we can help the internet fulfill its potential as an engine for global economic progress.”