Stripe's John Collison says they are 'happy' to stay private at $95bn valuation

The Collison brothers, co-founders of internet payment firm Stripe, say they are in no rush to go public with the firm despite its most recent valuation of $95bn.  

Patrick and John Collison, co-founders of payments firm Stripe: John Collison, speaking in Dubai, says its 'happy' to stay a private company

Stripe’s Irish president said the digital payments company that was last valued at $95bn (€80bn) has no “immediate” plans to go public.

“We’re very happy as a private company,” John Collison, who founded the company with his brother, said at a conference in Abu Dhabi. The Irish State earlier this year took a small stake in the private company. Stripe, which has headquarters in Dublin and San Francisco, raised $600m in March, becoming the most valuable US startup and one of the biggest globally alongside TikTok parent ByteDance.  

In March, the brothers, John and Patrick,  committed to creating a further 1,000 jobs in Ireland over the coming years. Moreover, the Irish State through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, or Isif, injected $50m, or about a tenth of the $600m in the latest funding round, in the privately-held Stripe.  

Albeit a minnow, Isif is the first sovereign wealth fund to invest in Stripe. Bloomberg News reported in September that it was in early discussions with investment banks about going public as soon as next year through a direct listing or initial public offering. 

However, a plunge by India’s Paytm after its IPO has meanwhile cast a shadow over the prospects of technology firms preparing to go public. 

Stripe competes with Square and Paypal. Its products are used by businesses including Amazon, Salesforce, and Lyft. The 11-year-old company made its first foray into the Middle East earlier in 2021 by opening an office in Dubai. 

Growing

Speaking on Tuesday in Dubai, John Collison said Stripe is looking to grow “more broadly” across the Gulf region to make its services available for companies like food-delivery startup Deliveroo that are embarking on expansion plans of their own.

“This is a massive region that is just starting to inflect in terms of its own growth,” he said.

 “We just arrived here in June. So it feels like we’re early on that journey, we’re still very heavily investing.” 

The Irish Examiner reported in March that the Collison brothers were at that stage intent on keeping the internet payments company they created in private hands. 

It had by then vaulted to become Silicon Valley's most valuable private startup after investors injected a further $600m to value the firm then at $95bn. Stripe has a significant roster of investors from the world's billionaires and largest funds, including early investors Elon Musk of Tesla electric car company and Peter Thiel. 

The intent signalled that the Limerick-Tipperary brothers, John and Patrick will not be cashing in on an estimated personal wealth of $3bn that their stake in Stripe represents. Earlier this year former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, the Canadian who has an Irish passport, joined the Stripe board. 

That appointment sparked talk that Stripe would sell shares for the first time. 

• Bloomberg and Irish Examiner