Brothers founded the most valuable startup in the US

Stripe, which builds economic infrastructure for the internet, is now the most valuable startup in the US.

The company raised US$600 million in a funding round with the business valued at US$95 billion, moving it ahead of Elon Musk‘s SpaceX company, which is worth an estimated US$74 billion. The major investors in the funding round were Allianz X, Axa, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Sequoia Capital, and the National Treasury Management Agency in Ireland.

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund has today announced an investment of €42m ($50m) in global payments technology company @Stripe, founded by Irish entrepreneurs, Patrick and John Collison. Read more: https://t.co/nrqZPLINMN https://t.co/c5nTf2vF8Y pic.twitter.com/gBr3Bx4JT7

— NTMA (@NTMA_IE) March 14, 2021

The business, which has dual headquarters in San Francisco, California, and Dublin, Ireland, plans to add 1,000 jobs in Ireland alone over the next five years, which will more than triple its workforce in the country.

"We’re investing a ton more in Europe this year, particularly in Ireland," said President and Co-Founder John Collison. "Whether in fintech, mobility, retail or SaaS, the growth opportunity for the European digital economy is immense."

Stripe's business has boomed during the coronavirus pandemic as online shopping demand soared. It is now active in 42 countries, including 31 in Europe, which is home to one of its fastest-growing customer bases.

New clients seeking to grow and diversify their online revenue include Axel Springer, Jaguar Land Rover, Maersk, Metro, Mountain Warehouse and Waitrose. Europe’s growing companies like Deliveroo, Doctolib, Glofox, Klarna, ManoMano, N26, UiPath, and Vinted all operate on Stripe to be on the global stage.

Stripe said more than 50 category leaders – companies processing each more than US$1 billion annually – are customers. Enterprise revenue is now both Stripe’s largest and fastest-growing segment, more than doubling year over year.

"In 2021, we will double down on our enterprise capabilities, particularly our customer success teams, to help even more large businesses like Twilio or Zapier significantly increase their revenue," said Mike Clayville, Stripe’s Chief Revenue Officer.

"We will also invest in our global expansion to help companies such as Glofox or MATCHESFASHION increase their market opportunity. And through partnerships with enterprise solutions like Salesforce Commerce Cloud we will make it even easier for large multinationals around the world to switch to Stripe."

Despite the global economy accelerating its shift to online in 2020 due to COVID-19, only 14 per cent of commerce takes place online, Stripe said.

"We’re investing in the infrastructure that will power internet commerce in 2030 and beyond," said Dhivya Suryadevara, Chief Financial Officer. "The pandemic taught us many things about society, including how much can be achieved – and paid for – online, but the internet still isn’t the engine for global economic progress that it could be.

"We’re laser-focused on helping ambitious businesses grow faster. While Stripe already processes hundreds of billions of dollars per year for millions of businesses worldwide, the opportunity ahead is much larger for Stripe than it was when the company was started 10 years ago."

In 2021, the business is expanding its suite of software and services to help businesses in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Thailand and the UAE.