Digital payments company Stripe announced Wednesday that it raised over $6.5 billion in Series I funding to value the company at $50 billion. As we reported earlier this month , the payments giant was expected to raise a lower amount of funding, around $2 billion, though at $60 billion valuation. More recently, Stripe was publicly valued at $95 billion.
New investors in the round include GIC, Goldman Sachs Asset and Wealth Management and Temasek. They joined existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, MSD Partners and Thrive Capital. As earlier reported, Stripe intends to use the proceeds to “provide liquidity to current and former employees and address employee withholding tax obligations related to equity awards, resulting in the retirement of Stripe shares that will offset the issuance of new shares to Series I investors.” The company also noted that it “does not need this capital to run its business.” It’s been an interesting time for Stripe, valuation-wise. Two months ago, TechCrunch reported that Stripe had cut its internal valuation to $63 billion. That 11% cut came after an internal valuation cut that occurred six months prior, which valued the company at $74 billion. In between, Stripe laid off 14% of its staff, or around 1,120 people, in November.
