Stripe has announced a tender offer for employees and shareholders, valuing the payments giant at $91.5 billion, nearing its 2021 peak of $95 billion. The company states that it and its investors will repurchase shares to provide liquidity to current and former employees.
This valuation marks a significant recovery for Stripe, bouncing back from the $50 billion valuation it held during a funding round in March 2023. The announcement coincides with the release of Stripe’s annual letter, which reveals that the firm’s total payment volume surged to $1.4 trillion in 2024, representing a 38% year-on-year increase and accounting for approximately 1.3% of global GDP.
Cofounders Patrick and John Collison credit this growth to strategic investments in AI that are reaping rewards, leading to increased revenue for existing customers, attracting more businesses to switch to Stripe, and enabling new companies to scale rapidly.
The letter also emphasizes the rising significance of stablecoins. Last year, Stripe acquired the stablecoin orchestration platform Bridge and is currently assisting some of the largest organizations globally in developing related strategies.
“Improvements to the basic usability of money make economies more prosperous. Consider the transitions from coins to banknotes, from the gold standard to fiat currency, and from paper instruments to electronic payments. Stablecoins are a new branch of the money tree. Such transitions occur regularly over the centuries, with substantial effects,” the Collisons stated.