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Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

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81–90 of 151 posts

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#81
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of it this way: there is no opportunity for an new entrant into this market almost globally. Stripe's fee is low enough and its API is super easy to use and the brand is well loved by most ecommerce companies. A new entrant will have to go up against this enormous amount of goodwill that Stripe has accumulated. The only danger to Stripe is if a major bank decides to get into this space. I work for a major bank…

Disagree. Every ecommerce company and retailer looks at payment fees as money left on the table. The more money Stripe take on, the more they need to return to investors, and so the more pressure to make margin. That is the opportunity for the future. I too doubt it would come from a bank, nor from Visa and Mastercard... but could another exist? Yes! If it came from a big player, I'd be looking at Shopify.

100% agree. Customers do not know or care whether Stripe is being used to process their credit card transactions. There is zero brand loyalty on their side. And merchants absolutely will switch in a heartbeat if there was an existing service with similar ease of use and lower fees.

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#82
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ireland is also a tax haven, but sure, they're benevolently investing in their home country, that's totally what it is.

Most of the loop holes have been closed in Ireland over the past few years. I'd look at the Netherlands, Malta or Luxembourg these days if you're looking for shady booking accounting practices. It helps that the Collisons' are from Ireland, but there's also a highly educated workforce, native English speakers, a pro-business government, world class backbone internet connectivity, favourable timezone, plenty of renewa…

What about Gibraltar?

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#83
post #45

This certainly makes Stripe the most valuable private startup in the world. Where does Stripe rank among the world's most valuable private companies, though? It's easy to find lists of dubious quality like this: https://news.yahoo.com/10-most-valuable-private-companies-21... , but I'm sure there are more lurking. What are they?

Coinbase is still private and is valued at $100 B.

Would they have that valuation if they were non-custodial?

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#84
post #3

What is Stripe's moat? It's developer friendly but from my experience management will only care about the cost.

Think about how much complexity Stripe abstracts away from you as its user. In the US it might seem "simple" in that it's just cards, but each network/acquirer behaves differently enough that even that isn't easy. Now incorporate payment methods that aren't cards -- which are way more popular than cards in other parts of the world. Then think about decoupling the payment method from the geo. And then decouple the pay…

One of the sort of conundrums of UX is that the more work you put into it, the easier it looks (because you've simplified it for the user by moving the complexity to the app/service's end of things).

So a shitty UI with a million random buttons looks complicated and hard and users respect it, but an intuitive UI looks so simple and clean it's like the software's barely doing anything!

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#85
post #24

Is Stripe unprofitable? What kind of scale are they going to reach that will push them over the edge into the black that they haven't been able to reach at the vast scale they already have? If they are profitable, why go the expensive equity route rather than using retained earnings? Or bonds? American Airlines recently sold $10 billion of them at 5.5%. Surely Stripe could do just as well or better.

Payment is just the entry point; from there they are probably going to expand into other quasi-bank services; the first low-hanging fruit that comes to mind is Advance Loans secured by CC receivables; easy, popular and highly lucrative.

> easy, popular and highly lucrative.

Eh? How can it be all three of these things at the same time? If it's easy and popular, won't that push down the prices you can charge?

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#86
post #80
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dart idea might give us better distribution? Throw a dart and solve problems/invest in solutions for where it sticks. Mostly be fixing ocean problems but I'm OK with that.

Wouldn’t this just mean that countries with larger land mass get more investment rather than countries with more people?

Well, (my) darts aren't accurate, so, maybe? I couldn't hit Belgium from 3m away but I probably couldn't hit USA either. I'm thinking water still wins. And it depends on the map projection too. Maybe the dart is to focus on that specific circular area, like 10km radius or something? Or maybe every group gets an equal slice on the dart board? Just something to help distribution rather than some money-motivated/short-term-outrage method we seem to have now.

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#87

Is Stripe unprofitable? What kind of scale are they going to reach that will push them over the edge into the black that they haven't been able to reach at the vast scale they already have? If they are profitable, why go the expensive equity route rather than using retained earnings? Or bonds? American Airlines recently sold $10 billion of them at 5.5%. Surely Stripe could do just as well or better.

From the article:

Keeping away from the public markets has allowed Stripe to keep a tight lid on financial details; it has not disclosed revenues or profitability.

However, a person close to the San Francisco-based company said it handles a larger volume of payments than its European rival Adyen, which has a market capitalisation of €60bn and processed €303.6bn in 2020.

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#88
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ireland is also a tax haven, but sure, they're benevolently investing in their home country, that's totally what it is.

They never implied anything about motive. Really, why does motive even matter? Opposing motives can meet on the same positive result. It happens all the time with humans; whether it's two friends, or a corporation of 50,000 people, or a nation of 300 million. Your pessimism seems to ignore the fact that this is a good thing regardless.

They were quoted saying the move "cements [their] Irish roots [and] provides enough space to gradually expand our team."

It'd be a breath of fresh air if CEO's could just say it like it is. I think more people would trust their brand and be more willing to invest in them. Our inner monologue wouldn't have had to fill in the blank with a possible hidden motive. Addressing the most common reason why companies "move" to Ireland could have been an opportunity to build trust.

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#89
Well, I guess the crazy correlation between initial server-side tech choice and valuation has just gotten a lot crazier: https://twitter.com/logicmason/status/1371255029412233218

Edit: Based on the published data I can find, Stripe and Coinbase alone have added more to their valuations in the last year than the total valuation of the top 50 YC-funded startups including Stripe and Coinbase was last year.

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#90

I really really wish I could invest in Stripe as a retail investor :(

Sadly, the US locks out all but the wealthiest decile or so from the best investment opportunities.

The huge exception this past decade has been crypto.

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