Stripe, a payment infrastructure provider, has raised USD 6.5 billion in Series I funding from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, MSD Partners, and Thrive Capital, as well as new investors GIC, Goldman Sachs Asset and Wealth Management, and Temasek. 

The round values the company at USD 50 billion, bringing its total funds raised up to around USD 8.7 billion. 

The funds will not be used in running business operations, and instead will be put toward offering liquidity to employees (current and former) and address employee withholding tax obligations related to equity awards. This will result in the retirement of Stripe shares, which will be offset by the issuance of new shares to the Series I investors. 

Analyst QuickTake: The funding comes just two months after Stripe announced its intentions to IPO within one year. However, its valuation has notably reduced further from when Stripe slashed its internal valuation to USD 63 billion in January (from a USD 95 billion valuation at the time of its March 2021 fundraise). The initial valuation slash followed the company laying off ~14% of its workforce in November 2022, reportedly due to Stripe being overly optimistic about the internet economy’s growth in 2022 and 2023.