Stripe co-founder John Collison gives a speech in Paris in 2016.
Jacques Demarthon | AFP via Getty Images
Payment processor Stripe raised $6.5 billion at a $50 billion valuation, the company said Wednesday, a sharp discount from its record $95 billion valuation in 2021.
“Stripe does not need this capital to run its business,” the company said in a press release. The fundraising — with contributions from Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Goldman Sachs and Temasek — will instead go toward providing liquidity to “current and former employees” and tax liabilities associated with stock awards.
Stripe, which was ranked eighth on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list last year, has now cut its valuation by nearly half from its high two years ago. The company builds payment processing software for e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Google, and Shopify.
Goldman Sachs was the sole placement agent, while JP Morgan was Stripe’s financial advisor.
Stripe has been privately owned for more than a decade, despite frequent speculation about an IPO. CNBC reported in January that the company would make a decision on a public offering within a year.
Stripe’s latest Series I round will be non-dilutive, the company said. By providing “liquidity” to current and former employees, the company offsets the issuance of the round’s new shares. But the company has long maintained that private ownership is optimal.
“We are very happy as a private company,” Stripe co-founder John Collison told CNBC in 2021. At the time, Collison dismissed rumors of a possible IPO.
In July, Stripe cut its internal valuation by 28% from $95 billion to $74 billion. Then in January, The Information reported that Stripe downgraded its valuation again to $63 billion. The drop mirrors the dramatic decline in tech stocks last year, the worst year for the Nasdaq since 2008.
Stripe laid off 14% of its workforce in November after its leadership admitted misjudging how much the internet economy would continue to grow.
WATCH: Stripe co-founder says: ‘We are very happy as a private company’