Report: Stripe Plots $85 Billion Employee Share Sale

Stripe is reportedly in talks about an employee stock sale at an $85 billion valuation.

The deal could add $15 billion on to the payments company valuation, Bloomberg News reported late Monday (Feb. 10), citing sources familiar with the matter.

That number, the report says, is still $10 billion lower than Stripe’s peak valuation of $95 billion, achieved when the company last raised money in the tech boom of 2021. The sources said the deal is still being hammered out and its terms could change.

As Bloomberg notes, Stripe — founded and led by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison — has turned into a major financial institution following its launch in 2011. It’s been long considered a candidate for a major initial public offering (IPO), though Stripe has insisted it is in no hurry to go public, the report added.

Stripe recently said it would lay off 300 workers, while also planning to boost its overall staffing levels to 10,000 by the year’s end. It now has around 8,500 employees, the report added.

It is also increasing its ad budget, as are other FinTechs, according to recent reports, with advertising spending in the space up 45% in the last three years.

“For forever, FinTech companies were very aligned with digital-native businesses,” Jeff Titterton, chief marketing officer at Stripe, which ventured into brand advertising for the first time last year, told Bloomberg in January.

“But what we’re seeing right now is that they’re taking on a broader purview. Their addressable market is continuing to grow, which is why you see us showing up in places where we might not have before.”

Last year, Stripe announced a massive deal, acquiring the stablecoin payments platform Bridge for $1.1 billion. The deal ultimately closed last week.

“Stablecoins are room-temperature superconductors for financial services,” Patrick Collison, the firm’s CEO, said at the time. “Thanks to stablecoins, businesses around the world will benefit from significant speed, coverage and cost improvements in the coming years.”

More recently, Stripe expanded its partnership with Swedish buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Klarna, allowing merchants to offer Klarna as an option to customers.

“The ambition is to make Klarna payments available everywhere, for everything, all the time,” Klarna Chief Commercial Officer David Sykes said in a news release. “Stripe is now a top choice for both Fortune 500 companies and the world’s most ambitious startups, and we see them as a great distribution partner for us.”