Stripe co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison on stage. Image: Stripe
The Wall Street Journal reported that some existing shareholders in the fintech company sold their stakes to major investors.
Stripe shareholders recently sold off around $1bn in shares, according to media reports, as more investors seek a stake in the company.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Collison brothers’ company ran a tender offer for existing shareholders to sell their stakes.
It received bids up to $4bn from investors but around $1bn was sold in the end. The company has not commented on the investments.
Shopify, Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake and Capital Group purchased stakes in the company as part of this latest transaction, according to the report. In some cases, these investors increased their existing holdings in the fintech giant.
Meanwhile, longstanding employees may have sold their shares in the company before their share options expire, which is typically a 10-year window.
Rumours and speculation continue to swirl around Stripe going public, with 2022 touted as the year that the company makes the leap – 12 years after it was founded. For shareholders, a Stripe flotation could make for a hefty payday. For now, investors are looking to shore up bigger stakes in the company.
Stripe raised $600m in an investment round in March that valued it at $95bn.
The company’s recent moves give some indication of the broad plans that it has.
It has been rolling out new or expanded products that go beyond its core payments processing functions. On Monday (14 June), it released Stripe Identity, an AI-powered tool for verifying a person’s identity in a payment transaction, and last week it released Stripe Tax to automate businesses’ calculation and collecting of VAT and sales taxes.
Stripe has a mission to be an all-encompassing payments and banking infrastructure company. It has become a frequent investor in fintech start-ups in recent years as well, keeping tabs on what might be the next big thing in finance, payments and banking tech.
