Irish-founded Stripe valuation rebounds to $65bn following tender offer

The deal providing current and former Stripe employees with liquidity has boosted Stripe's valuation — but it's still below its €95bn peak during the e-commerce boom amid the pandemic

Stripe was founded in 2010 by Limerick brothers Patrick and John Collison.

The valuation of global payment processing firm Stripe rebounded to $65bn (€60bn) after it entered into a share repurchasing agreement.

The tender offer which provides current and former Stripe employees with liquidity has boosted Stripe’s valuation but it still remains below the €95bn peak it hit in the e-commerce boom in the midst of the pandemic.

The majority of funds for the tender offer are being provided by investors but Stripe will also use a portion of its own capital to repurchase shares to offset dilution from the company’s employee equity compensation programmes.

The deal could pave the way for plans for Stripe to file for an IPO which investors have been highly anticipating for years.

Stripe was founded in 2010 by Limerick brothers Patrick and John Collison. The pair built the company from it headquarters in San Francisco to become a so-called unicorn in 2014 after reaching a valuation of €1bn.

“When we first partnered with Stripe in 2010, it was a scrappy payments innovator,” said Roelof Botha, managing partner at Sequoia Capital.

More than a decade later, Stripe has evolved beyond payments to set a new standard for financial infrastructure — driving significant revenue growth for its users. 

However, Stripe found itself among the wave of tech companies that became bloated in recent years. In 2022, Stripe was one of the first companies to announce layoffs following a global economic downturn fuelled by interest rates and high prices.

At the end of 2022, Stripe said it would cut 14% of its global workforce, affecting some staff in Ireland.

Stripe Billing is now used by more than 200,000 customers, including media firms such as The Atlantic and Forbes, and tech companies like Slack.

Stripe Tax automates sales tax across 50 US States and 40 countries and is used by businesses including Duolingo, Retool, and Roblox.