Stripe Raises Fresh $600 Million, Continues to Invest in Growth During COVID-19 Crisis

Bucking the recent trend of declining funding levels, leading payment facilitator Stripe announced that it had raised an additional $600 million as an extension of its September Series G round.

In a press release, the company described itself as “providing an on-ramp to the digital economy for businesses around the world.” This function has become more critical as small businesses have turned to online sales to survive during the COVID-19 crisis.

“People who never dreamt of using the internet to see the doctor or buy groceries are now doing so out of necessity. And businesses that deferred moving online or had no reason to operate online have made the leap practically overnight,” said John Collison, President and Co-founder of Stripe.

“We believe now is not the time to pull back, but to invest even more heavily in Stripe’s platform.”

Stripe plans to use its latest funds to support “product development, global expansion and strategic initiatives,” the company said.

And during a time when businesses are struggling to stay afloat, Stripe emphasized its strength.

“With more than $2 billion on its balance sheet, a capital-efficient business model, and a highly-diversified, growing, global user base, Stripe is in a position to both provide uninterrupted service to its users in a time of stress and invest in long-term improvements,” it said in its announcement.

Stripe told CNBC that the new round increases its valuation to $36 billion. The outlet described Stripe as “by far” the most valuable private company in the fintech sector.

While some of its customers are certainly seeing decreased transaction volumes, the company has benefitted from the shift many businesses have made online as well as increases in demand for its customers like the ubiquitous video conferencing company Zoom and food delivery companies like DoorDash and Instacart.

“Stripe has been a huge beneficiary in the shift to online commerce, which represented around 10% of total commerce before the crisis,” tech analyst Robert Le told PitchBook.

Stripe raised its latest funds from existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, GV, and Sequoia.