Stripe, Inc. is an Irish-American[3] multinational financial services and software as a service (SaaS) company dual-headquartered in South San Francisco, California, United States, and Dublin, Ireland.[4][5] The company primarily offers payment-processing software and application programming interfaces for e-commerce websites and mobile applications.[6]
Stripe is the largest privately owned financial technology company with a valuation of about $159 billion and over $1.9 trillion in payment volume processed in 2025.[7]
History
Irish entrepreneur brothers John and Patrick Collison founded Stripe in Palo Alto, California, in 2010, and serve as the company's president and CEO, respectively.[8][9] In 2011 the company received a $2million investment, including contributions from Elon Musk, PayPal founder Peter Thiel, Irish entrepreneur Liam Casey,[10] and venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and SV Angel.
In March 2013, Stripe made its first acquisition, Kickoff, a chat and task-management application.[11] In 2012 the company moved from Palo Alto to San Francisco.[12] In October 2019, the company announced that it would be moving from the South of Market area to Oyster Point in the neighbouring city of South San Francisco in 2021.[12] In February 2021, Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada and of the Bank of England, was appointed to the company's board.[13] Carney stepped down from his role with the company in 2025 in order to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party.[14]
Stripe acquired accountancy platform Recko in October 2021 whose solution was to be added to Stripe's existing suite of financial tools.[15]
In January 2022, Stripe entered a five-year partnership with Ford Motor Company. Through the deal, Stripe would handle transactions for consumer vehicle orders and reservations.[16] That same month, Stripe partnered with Spotify to help creators monetize subscriptions, accept payments and launch recurring revenue streams.[17] In April 2022, Twitter announced that it would partner with Stripe Inc (digital payments processor) for piloting cryptocurrency pay-outs for limited users in the platform. "The crypto payments will be routed through Stripe Connect, which will also handle KYC requirements", Stripe said. The company announced it was also planning to add options for payment in other cryptocurrencies in the future.[18]
In April 2022, Stripe announced its strategic partnership with UK-based fintech company ION.[19] The Wall Street Journal reported in July 2022 that the company's internal share price had fallen, causing its implied valuation to drop from $95billion to $74billion.[20] In November 2022, the company announced it intended to initiate layoffs, terminating some 14% of its workforce.[21]
Throughout 2022 and 2023, the company announced a number of large enterprise customers including Airbnb,[22] Amazon,[23] Microsoft,[24] Uber,[25] BMW,[26] Maersk,[27] Zara,[28] Lotus,[29] Alaska Airlines,[30]
In January 2025, Stripe sent layoff notices to nearly 300 workers, primarily affecting roles in Product, Operations and Engineering. The company experienced controversy when the company sent a cartoon picture of a duck to the laid-off employees. Stripe's Chief People Officer Rob McIntosh later apologized for the mistake.[34]
After re-enabling crypto pay-ins in April 2024, starting with USDC, Stripe completed the acquisition of Bridge in February 2025.[35] The acquisition of the two-year-old stablecoin platform company is valued at $1.1 billion.[36][37] In June 2025, the company acquired Privy, which powers crypto wallets.[38]
In September 2025, Stripe announced it was powering Instant Checkout in ChatGPT and released Agentic Commerce Protocol for agentic commerce, which was co-developed with OpenAI.[39]
In February 2026, Stripe was valued at $159 billion in a tender offer posted for employees and shareholders. The tender offer was about a 70% increase from Stripe's previous valuation published in February 2025, where it was valued at $91.5 billion. Stripe also announced that its total volume increased to $1.9 trillion USD in 2025, a 34% increase from 2024.[40][41]
This 2025 market growth is credited by Stripe Co-Founder John Collison to have come from three main areas. These areas are continued relationships with big partners, the growth of the AI industry, and the increasing use of Stablecoin. Stripe's massive growth has been pushed forward by the continued relationship between Stripe and its larger partners, such as Microsoft, NVIDIA, and many other large corporations moving to Stripe.[40]
The expansion of the AI industry, according to John Collison, also has helped Stripe grow in market share, with AI enterprises, large AI companies and many AI labs being set up around the world using Stripe more frequently. This increased use of Stripe by these firms means that a significant portion of Stripe's growth is tied to the growth of the AI industry, with Collison describing AI growth as the "tailwind" of Stripe's business for 2025.[40]
The third main driver of Stripe's growth in 2025 according to Collison was the increased use of Stablecoin in transactions, with Stablecoins being a cryptocurrency tied to an official fiat currency, many businesses see Stablecoin as a much safer alternative than other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. Collison praised the use of Stablecoin in a 2026 interview with CNBC: "Stablecoin, we talked about this, but they're finally starting to work for real use cases, and we are seeing very real Stablecoin volumes."[40] Stripe gained better access to Stablecoin since its aforementioned acquisition of Bridge in 2024.
Investors have often inquired about when Stripe might make its Initial Public Offering. But John Collison has shut down many rumors about an IPO, saying that Stripe is more focused on "building the right products for our users and serving their growth." John Collison has publicly stated that Stripe management sees an IPO as a distraction, saying that "An IPO would be a solution in search of a problem," since Stripe is growing rapidly and is self-funded from profits, meaning that Stripe would not need extra capital in the near future. Because of these reasons, Collison describes going public as not being one of Stripe's "Top five, ten, or twenty priorities."[40]
Technology company
Payment processing
Stripe provides application programming interfaces that web developers can use to integrate payment processing into their websites and mobile applications.[42] The company introduced Stripe Connect in 2012, a multiparty payments solution that lets software developers embed payments natively into their products.[43]
In April 2018, Stripe released antifraud tools, branded "Radar", that block fraudulent transactions.[44] The same year, it expanded its services to include a billing product for online businesses, allowing businesses to manage subscription recurring revenue and invoicing.[45]
Stripe App Marketplace
In May 2022, Stripe announced the launch of an App Marketplace allowing users to customize Stripe with third-party app integrations.[76] At launch, the Marketplace had over 50 apps including offerings from DocuSign, Dropbox, Intercom, Mailchimp, Ramp, and Xero.[77] While the marketplace was launched in May, app installations were not available immediately.[78]
The move followed Stripe's acquisition of OpenChannel, a company which built app ecosystems for businesses, in December 2021.[79]
Growth
In May 2011, Stripe received a $2million investment from venture capitalists Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, and Andreessen Horowitz.[80] Stripe launched publicly in September 2011 after an extensive private beta.[81]
In 2020 Stripe expanded its services to five new European markets: the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Malta.[82]
On 15 October 2020, Stripe acquired Paystack, a Nigerian payment processor, in a deal reportedly worth over $200million, with the aim of expanding its services into Africa.[83]
In December 2020, Stripe announced plans to expand in Southeast Asia, China, India, and Japan.
Investments
Stripe is reported to have participated in two funding rounds for Monzo, a "challenger bank" based in the U.K. Stripe's first investment in Monzo was reported on 6 November 2017,[89] with a second investment in Monzo's Series E fundraising round reported on 10 October 2018.[90] Monzo's valuation grew from approximately $350million[89] to $1.27billion[90] through these two rounds of fundraising. Stripe participated in a third round of funding for Monzo on 24 June 2019, which raised approximately $144million in funding for Monzo at a valuation of approximately $2.5billion.[91][92]
Stripe has invested in companies offering similar services as themselves, but in different geographical regions.
Litigation
In March 2026, the Federal Trade Commission issued a warning against Stripe and three other payment processing brands for debanking of law-abiding citizens over political, religious or certain law-abiding activities.[107]
See also
- Electronic commerce
- List of online payment service providers
- Payment gateway
- Payment service provider
- Subscription business model
Further reading
External links
- How I Built This—Stripe: Patrick and John Collison (audio interview)
References
- Jyoti Mann. Leaked memo: Stripe lays off 300 employees, mostly in product, engineering, and operations Business Insider, 21 January 2025, retrieved 22 January 2025^
- Cory Weinberg. Stripe Minted More Than $2 Billion in Cash Last Year. Why Go Public? The Information, 26 March 2025, retrieved 13 August 2025^
- Stripe. Stripe UK Tax Strategy