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Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

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

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just listened to a podcast with Patrick Collison in which he listed the ways in which Stripe's market seemed unattractive when they started out. Dauntingly complex, highly regulated etc. Anyone looking to compete with Stripe will have the same thought process and probably won't bother. And if they do then they will have to execute as successfully as Stripe over an extended period. Edit: Just to add that the podcast…

sure that was then, but that changed over the years. stripe is not cheap, i'm pretty sure if somebody came with the same UX many would switch, us including. We are B2B and with postpaid so the customers are using Stripe to pay Invoices. There are zero charge backs or fraud but still have to pay high fees.

You'll notice I didn't mention price!

Sure you'd like an identical service to Stripe for a lower fee but the moat is that doing what Stripe does isn't easy at all. You're paying for that fact.

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

#42
post #3

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

Moat? The payments market is growing. A lot, to say the least. All you need is a small percentage of that and it's still significant.

It's like the soft drink market. You don't have to be #1 or #2 and you can still do quite well.

Stripe might never be on top but it'll print money fairly easily for a long time.

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

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you email them, they will usually give you a rate of around 2.7% for VC/MC and 3.9% for Amex

Sounds risky; Stripe's standard rate for Amex is 2.9%.

Yes, because according to published information, all Stripe Amex transactions are at a loss.

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

#44
So Ayden is valued at 100 times revenue. Per the article Stripe is bigger than Ayden and growing faster, so Stripe must be worth more than 100 times revenue and less than 95000/684 = 138 times revenue. So comparatively to Ayden their valuation seems cheap (or they are not bigger than Ayden)

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

#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.

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

#46
post #39
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Low pricing is not a moat.

This is totally wrong, considering Stripe has enormous negotiating leverage. My employer never bothers switching to any competitor because Stripe match any deal that their competitors present to us. Could you, a single person and $500m of seed funding match Stripe's prices? Not without hemorrhaging cash. One of Amazon's moats is low pricing as well, which can only be achieved with eye-watering scale (their margins ar…

Fun fact: I presented Stripe an opportunity to meet or beat a proposal by Braintree. They countered with a microscopic fee decrease and wanted to lock us into a 2 year deal.

Not only was the offer from Braintree way better, they gave us a better deal on PayPal fees as well.

Stripe’s focus on their supplementary offerings, like Billing (which used to be effectively free) and Checkout show that they’re trying to eat more of the transaction percentage. Try mentioning PayPal button on a Stripe Checkout page and you will be muted from talking in their YouTube broadcast.

Overall, I’m bearish on Stripe and look forward to shorting them on the public market, whenever that day comes.

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

#47

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?

> This certainly makes Stripe the most valuable private startup in the world.

Stripe has not been a startup for a while, they've been in public operations for about 10 years now and probably power a large portion of online purchases.

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

#48
post #11

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?

Yeah, I don't know about these lists. Cargill valued at 40bn when wikipedia says they own 60bn in assets and profiting... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargill

> Cargill valued at 40bn when wikipedia says they own 60bn in assets and profiting

This is true, but it's unclear how much debt they are carrying, and a quick Google couldn't find out.

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

#49
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Shopify already has a first party processor, but they are not available to non-shopify customers.

We use Stripe...

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

#50
post #44

So Ayden is valued at 100 times revenue. Per the article Stripe is bigger than Ayden and growing faster, so Stripe must be worth more than 100 times revenue and less than 95000/684 = 138 times revenue. So comparatively to Ayden their valuation seems cheap (or they are not bigger than Ayden)

valuation should not increase linearly based on revenue. the market winner will eventually get the lions share
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