Stripe, Inc.
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services, Software as a service (SaaS) |
| Founded | January 1, 2010 in Palo Alto, California, United States |
| Founder | John Collison, Patrick Collison |
| Headquarters | South San Francisco, California; Dublin , United States; Ireland |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Patrick Collison (CEO), John Collison (President), Rob McIntosh (Chief People Officer) |
| Products | Payment-processing software, APIs, Stripe Connect, Radar, Terminal, Stripe Capital, Stripe Tax, Payment Links, Stripe Issuing, Atlas, Link, Stripe Press, Stripe Treasury, Stripe Climate, Stripe Identity, Stripe Apps |
Number of employees | Not specified (has had layoffs in 2022 and 2025) |
| Website | stripe |
Stripe, Inc. is a multinational company specializing in financial services and software as a service (SaaS), with dual headquarters located in South San Francisco, California, USA, and Dublin, Ireland. Its core offerings include payment-processing software and application programming interfaces designed for integration with e-commerce platforms and mobile applications.
As the largest privately-held entity in the fintech sector, Stripe holds an estimated valuation near $91 billion and processed payment volumes exceeding $1.4 trillion in 2024.
History
The company was established in 2010 in Palo Alto, California, by Irish siblings John and Patrick Collison, with John assuming the role of president and Patrick serving as CEO. A year later, Stripe raised $2 million from prominent investors such as Elon Musk, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Irish businessman Liam Casey, alongside venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and SV Angel.
Stripe's initial acquisition occurred in March 2013 with the purchase of Kickoff, an application focused on chat and task management. The firm relocated from Palo Alto to San Francisco in 2012 and later announced a move to Oyster Point in South San Francisco in 2019. In February 2021, former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney joined Stripe’s board of directors.
The company's capabilities broadened through acquiring the accounting platform Recko in October 2021. In January 2022, Stripe initiated a five-year collaboration with Ford Motor Company to facilitate payment processing for vehicle orders and reservations. That same month, it partnered with Spotify to enable creators to monetize subscriptions and develop recurring revenue models. In April 2022, Twitter trialed cryptocurrency payouts for select users via Stripe Connect, which also manages Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance.
During April 2022, Stripe also entered a strategic alliance with UK-based fintech firm ION. Despite these advances, Stripe’s internal valuation declined from $95 billion to $74 billion by mid-2022. Subsequently, in November 2022, the company reduced its workforce by approximately 14% to adjust for anticipated economic challenges.
Between 2022 and 2023, Stripe secured contracts with major enterprises such as Airbnb, Amazon, Microsoft, Uber, BMW, Maersk, Zara, Lotus, Alaska Airlines, Le Monde, and Toyota. In March 2023, Stripe announced a partnership with OpenAI aimed at commercializing generative artificial intelligence technologies.
In January 2025, the company laid off nearly 300 employees predominantly from Product, Operations, and Engineering divisions. The layoffs attracted criticism after affected staff received a cartoon duck image; Chief People Officer Rob McIntosh issued a formal apology regarding the matter.
Payment processing
Stripe provides developers with application programming interfaces that facilitate the integration of payment processing into websites and mobile applications. In 2012, it launched Stripe Connect—a multi-party payment platform enabling native payment embedding within products.
In April 2018, Stripe released "Radar," an AI-powered antifraud system designed to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions. That year also saw the introduction of a billing solution tailored for subscription management and invoicing of recurring revenue.
Stripe’s point-of-sale product Terminal became widely available across the United States on June 11, 2019 after an initial invitation-only rollout. Terminal hardware is accessible in Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the United Kingdom and offers physical credit-card readers seamlessly integrated with Stripe’s platform.
On September 5, 2019, Stripe debuted Stripe Capital—a merchant cash advance program providing businesses with upfront funds based on future payments processed via their Stripe accounts.
In June 2021, Stripe launched Stripe Tax to automate calculation and collection of sales tax, VAT, and GST across over thirty countries as well as all U.S. states. The previous month saw the release of Payment Links—a no-code tool enabling merchants to accept payments through social media or direct channels without requiring a website.
January 2022 marked the acquisition of BBPOS—Stripe’s Terminal hardware partner—bringing reader development capabilities in-house. The following month Stripe became Apple’s inaugural partner for Tap to Pay on iPhone technology enabling contactless payments via iPhones and authorized apps.
May 2022 introduced Data Pipeline—allowing synchronization of Stripe data with Amazon Redshift or Snowflake Data Cloud for comprehensive business analytics—and also unveiled Stripe Financial Connections which grants companies direct access to customers’ bank accounts for verification purposes, balance inquiries that reduce payment failures, and fraud mitigation.
By September 2023, Stripe’s enhanced checkout solution supported more than one hundred global payment methods.
In May 2025, Stripe announced a new AI foundational model tailored for payments alongside accounts powered by stablecoins.
Corporate finance
In July 2018, Stripe unveiled Stripe Issuing, a service that allows digital businesses and platforms to generate their own physical and virtual credit and debit cards.
Atlas
On 14 February 2016, Stripe launched the Atlas platform aimed at assisting startups, particularly international entrepreneurs, in establishing US-based corporations. Initially accessible by invitation only, the program expanded in March 2016 to include Cuban entrepreneurs. Companies formed through Atlas were originally structured as Delaware C corporations; however, since April 2018, the option to register as limited liability companies (LLCs) has also been offered. Atlas participants automatically receive both a business bank account and a Stripe merchant account.
Link
Introduced in May 2021, Link is a service designed to securely save and auto-fill payment information via Stripe. It supports transactions in more than 185 countries and intends to broaden its availability to platform businesses through Stripe’s API.
Other
Stripe established Stripe Press in 2018 to disseminate ideas that support business growth. In 2019, it launched lending and credit card products for U.S. enterprises, utilizing machine learning algorithms for instant approval decisions. The following year saw the introduction of Stripe Treasury, which provides APIs enabling platform users to integrate financial services such as fund transfers, receipt, and storage.
In October 2020, Stripe introduced Stripe Climate to enable companies to contribute funding toward carbon capture initiatives. In 2022, it created the subsidiary Frontier, which raised $925 million from Silicon Valley investors to back startups focused on carbon removal technologies.
Stripe Identity was launched in June 2021, offering AI-driven identity verification services based on Stripe’s existing risk and compliance framework. May 2022 saw the debut of Stripe Apps for enhancing business workflows and Financial Connections, which facilitates secure access to customers’ bank accounts for verification and balance inquiries.
Stripe App Marketplace
Stripe introduced its App Marketplace in May 2022, allowing users to enhance Stripe’s capabilities with third-party application integrations. At launch, the marketplace included over 50 apps from partners such as DocuSign, Dropbox, Intercom, Mailchimp, Ramp, and Xero. Although announced in May, app installation functionality was not immediately activated.
This development followed Stripe’s acquisition of OpenChannel in December 2021, a company specializing in creating app ecosystems for businesses.
Growth
In May 2011, Stripe secured $2 million in funding from notable venture capitalists including Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, and Andreessen Horowitz. After an extended private beta phase, the company officially launched to the public in September 2011.
During 2020, Stripe expanded into five additional European countries: the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Malta. On 15 October 2020, it acquired Nigerian payment processor Paystack for a reported sum exceeding $200 million to enhance its footprint across Africa.
By December 2020, Stripe announced plans to increase its presence in Southeast Asia, China, India, and Japan by hiring an additional 200 employees across these regions. In March 2021, it raised $600 million at a valuation of $95 billion to support growth of its European headquarters.
In April 2021, Stripe acquired TaxJar—a Massachusetts-based cloud tax automation company—in a transaction valued at approximately $200 million. In March 2023, the company completed a Series I funding round exceeding $6.5 billion at a $50 billion valuation aimed at providing liquidity for employees and managing equity tax liabilities; this capital was not required for operational purposes.
On 4 February 2025, Stripe announced the acquisition of Bridge—a stablecoin platform founded two years prior—valued at $1.1 billion. This represents Stripe’s largest acquisition to date and signals an intensified focus on cryptocurrency markets.
Investments
Stripe has actively participated in several funding rounds for Monzo, a challenger bank headquartered in the U.K. The company’s initial stake was reported on 6 November 2017, followed by involvement in Monzo's Series E financing on 10 October 2018. These investments helped elevate Monzo’s valuation from around $350 million to $1.27 billion. Additionally, Stripe took part in a third funding round on 24 June 2019, which secured approximately $144 million, pushing the valuation close to $2.5 billion.
Expanding its reach, Stripe has also invested in payment service providers operating in various regions. In August 2018, it injected capital into PayStack, a payment platform based in Nigeria, and in September 2019, it backed PayMongo from the Philippines. Further extending its footprint, Stripe supported Safepay, a Pakistani payment processor, in February 2021.
On 6 June 2019, Stripe led a $22.5 million financing round for Step, a fintech company offering commission-free bank accounts tailored for teenagers. Later, on 26 March 2020, Stripe spearheaded a $20 million Series A funding round for Fast, a universal one-click checkout solution, and subsequently led its $102 million Series B round in January 2021; however, Fast ceased operations in April 2022.
Stripe also took the lead on 3 November 2021 by investing $4 million in a Series Seed round for Archive, a platform focused on social listening and user-generated content.
In April 2022, Stripe joined forces with Alphabet Inc., Shopify, McKinsey & Company, and Meta Platforms to establish Frontier, pledging $925 million over nine years towards advancing carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies.
On 15 July 2024, prominent investor Sequoia Capital offered its limited partners the chance to sell up to $861 million worth of Stripe shares. This initiative provided liquidity amid a sluggish IPO climate and reaffirmed Stripe’s valuation at $70 billion, securing its position as one of the most valuable startups worldwide.
Most recently, on 26 July 2024, Stripe completed the acquisition of Lemon Squeezy, a startup specializing in Merchant of Record services.