Stripe
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Investors
Founders
About
Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform that provides payment processing software and APIs for internet businesses 1. The company was founded in 2010 by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison in Palo Alto, California 23.
Both brothers had prior entrepreneurial success, having sold their auction management system Auctomatic for $5 million in 2008 while still teenagers 3. Observing how difficult it was for developers to accept payments online, John suggested they build a prototype for an “easy way to move money online” on the way back from a startup event in 2009 4. The company was initially conceived as “/dev/payments” and aimed to let developers integrate payments with just seven lines of code 32.
Stripe participated in Y Combinator and secured seed funding of approximately $2 million in 2011 from prominent investors including Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and SV Angel 25. The company launched publicly in the United States in September 2011 after a private beta period 3.
As of February 2026, Stripe’s valuation reached $159 billion through an employee tender offer, with Thrive Capital, Coatue, a16z, and others participating 6. The company has raised a total of approximately $9.8 billion across 24 funding rounds from over 120 investors 5. Stripe remains a private company as of March 2026.
Funding History
| Round | Date | Amount | Lead Investor(s) | Key Co-Investors | Valuation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | May 2011 | $2M | Peter Thiel | Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, Max Levchin | $20M |
| Series A | Feb 2012 | $18M | Sequoia Capital | General Catalyst, Peter Thiel, Andreessen Horowitz | $100M |
| Series B | 2012 | $20M | General Catalyst | Sequoia Capital | — |
| Series C | Jan 2014 | $80M | Founders Fund | Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Allen & Company | $1.8B |
| Series D | Dec 2016 | $150M | CapitalG (Google) | General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital | $9.2B |
| Series E | Sep 2019 | $250M | Sequoia Capital | Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst | $35B |
| Series G | Apr 2020 | $600M | Sequoia Capital | Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst | $36B |
| Series H | Mar 2021 | $600M | Sequoia Capital | Fidelity, NTMA (Ireland) | $95B |
| Series I | Mar 2023 | $6.5B | Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital | GIC, Goldman Sachs, Temasek, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Baillie Gifford | $50B |
| Tender Offer | Feb 2026 | — | Thrive Capital | Coatue, a16z | $159B |
What Investors Say
Peter Thiel (Seed investor): Thiel was among the first institutional backers of Stripe, investing as part of the $2 million seed round in 2011. Thiel, along with fellow PayPal alumni Elon Musk and Max Levchin, recognized the opportunity to simplify online payments – the very problem PayPal had first tackled a decade earlier 25.
Sequoia Capital: Sequoia has been one of Stripe’s most consistent backers, participating in nearly every major round from the seed stage through the Series H. Their continued investment reflects conviction in Stripe’s position as core internet infrastructure 57.
What Founders Say
Patrick Collison on the founding insight: The idea originated on the way back from a startup event in 2009, when John suggested they build a prototype for an “easy way to move money online.” Patrick later reflected: “Finally we’ll make payments not like really suck on the internet, and so I think that the reaction to Stripe was great, payments don’t suck anymore” 411.
Patrick Collison on early skepticism: “People told us we were crazy to try to compete in this space. They said we didn’t understand the complexities of the financial system, that we were too young, too inexperienced. But we saw an opportunity to make things better, and we were determined to see it through” 4.
Patrick Collison on the mission: Collison emphasized that the goal was to “make it super simple for people to build a business on the web” 12.
Sources
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Stripe website, “About Stripe,” accessed March 2026. https://stripe.com/about↩
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Contrary Research, “Report: Stripe Business Breakdown & Founding Story,” accessed March 2026. https://research.contrary.com/company/stripe↩↩↩↩↩
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KITRUM, “Stripe’s Founders: The Story of Collison Brothers,” accessed March 2026. https://kitrum.com/blog/stripe-founders-the-story-of-collison-brothers/↩↩↩↩
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Unicorn Growth, “How Stripe Grew from $0 to a Unicorn,” accessed March 2026. https://www.unicorngrowth.io/p/patrick-collison-building-stripe↩↩↩
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Tracxn, “Stripe - 2026 Funding Rounds & List of Investors,” accessed March 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/stripe/__uahG_IGnVgsUsOG-f8otYHLkOkliWg7YFhJ5ZkNIkpI/funding-and-investors↩↩↩↩↩
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ByteBridge, “Stripe, Inc. — A Comprehensive Report,” Medium, accessed March 2026. https://bytebridge.medium.com/stripe-inc-a-comprehensive-report-d6c422b66ce↩↩
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CNBC, “Fintech start-up Stripe notches eye-popping $35 billion valuation after new funding round,” September 19, 2019. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/19/fintech-start-up-stripe-notches-35-billion-valuation-in-funding-round.html↩↩
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Stripe Newsroom, “Stripe announces new round of funding and plan to provide employee liquidity,” March 2023. https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/stripe-series-i-employee-liquidity↩
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Stripe Newsroom, “Stripe extends Series G funding round,” accessed March 2026. https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/stripe-extends-series-g-funding-round↩
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SalesTools AI, “Stripe Raises $6.5B Series I to Transform,” accessed March 2026. https://salestools.io/en/report/stripe-6-5b-series-i-july-2025↩
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Startup Grind, “Startup Grind Hosts Patrick Collison of Stripe, 6 Months In - Full Interview,” 2012. https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/from-the-vault-patrick-collison-stripe-full-startup-grind-interview-2012/↩
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UC Berkeley Haas Newsroom, “Stripe co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison on founding a company that should have already existed,” accessed March 2026. https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/stripe-co-founder-and-ceo-patrick-collison-on-founding-a-company-that-should-have-already-existed/↩