The pandemic has threatened to block Stripe Inc. Instead, it turbocharged the company.
Stripe processes payments for e-commerce companies, keeping a small discount on each purchase as a fee for its services. When home orders at the beginning of the pandemic caused spending to fall and demand for reimbursement increased, the outlook was not great.
Then everything moved online. More than 500,000 medical practices, agricultural markets and other companies have migrated to online payments and used Stripe to do so. As people worked from home, redecorated or both, Stripe customers such as Peloton Interactive Inc. and Wayfair Inc. enjoyed successful sales.
Stripe’s revenue rose nearly 70 percent last year to about $ 7.4 billion, according to people with knowledge of the company’s finances. Other startups may have brighter apps or more recognized brands, but Stripe has shown that it’s better to be a workhorse than a show pony.
Now on top of a $ 95 billion valuation – the largest for a private Silicon Valley company, according to data firm PitchBook – Stripe is expanding overseas, preparing to go public and working to build a unique financial supermarket for internet economy.