Finextra

Stripe has topped up its Series G funding round with an additional $600 million, with Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, GV, and Sequoia all pumping money into the payments juggernaut that is benefiting from the Covid-19-inspired online migration. The funding comes on top of a $250 million round in September, and values Stripe at $36 billion.

Founded in 2010 by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, Silicon-Valley-based Stripe has built itself up into a multi-billion dollar company off the back of making it easy for online sellers to accept card payments.

The latest funding comes as the Covid-19 pandemic means that “several years of offline-to-online migration are being compressed into several weeks,” says Stripe, underlining the value of its mission to “grow the GDP of the internet”.

Among the new enterprise clients signing up to Stripe is Zoom, the video conferencing outfit that has, perhaps more than any other firm, become the poster child of the lockdown.

While some fintech firms are struggling during the pandemic, Stripe’s latest raise is not a sign the company needs funds. It says it has more than $2 billion on its balance sheet, a capital-efficient business model, and a highly-diversified, growing, global user base.

John Collison, president, Stripe, says: “People who never dreamt of using the internet to see the doctor or buy groceries are now doing so out of necessity. And businesses that deferred moving online or had no reason to operate online have made the leap practically overnight. “We believe now is not the time to pull back, but to invest even more heavily in Stripe’s platform.”

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