SCOOP: Stripe Is Raising $6 Billion to Resolve Taxes & Expiring Employee Shares, Delaying Public Listing
Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, and Founders Fund are participating in the round along with Goldman Sachs private wealth clients.
Stripe is raising $6 billion at a $50 billion valuation, sources tell me.
Venture capital firms Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, and Founders Fund are participating in the round, sources says. Goldman Sachs is helping to fill out the round by raising money from private wealth clients.
The deal is basically decided, sources tell me. The valuation fell during the fundraising process. While previous reports had pegged the fundraising total at lower amounts, sources tell me that the company is raising $6 billion.
A spokesperson for Stripe declined to comment.
The funding round is one of the largest venture rounds in a private technology startup ever. OpenAI’s Microsoft deal, if it ends up totaling $10 billion, would be larger, but it’s a different sort of animal. This Stripe round is humongous by any standard.
The money is going toward helping early Stripe employees exercise their restricted stock units before they expire and then toward organizing a tender offer for employees to sell shares.
While the tax bill has been estimated to total about $3.5 billion, much of the excess money will be used to allow employees to sell their Stripe shares.
The funding round is not intended for Stripe’s corporate coffers.