Stripe launched in 2011 as a payment processing software for e-commerce. Since its launch, Stripe has grown into a $95 billion company that operates around the world.With just 7 lines of code and a great idea, two brothers from rural Ireland totally revolutionized online payments. How did they go from a small-scale startup to a dominating force in the financial industry?How Stripe was startedStripe was founded 11 years ago by John and Patrick Collison, aged 19 and 21 at the time. When they were 18 and 16, John and Patrick launched their first-ever business called Auctomatic, which helped eBay store owners track their inventory. Ten months later a Canadian company bought it for $5 million - a testimony to the brothers’ talent.While studying at Harvard and MIT in 2009 and continuing to develop apps, the idea for Stripe was born out of their own experiences with running an internet business, where, according to John, “the hardest part was finding ways of accepting customers money.” In 2010, both the brothers dropped out of college to try and get their business idea off the ground. And so, Stripe, although then called /Dev/Payments, was born as an online payment processing platform.What made Stripe so special?The platform’s software made it possible for online businesses to accept digital payments without having to obtain licenses or strike deals with banks or credit card operators to receive money.This model is what gave Stripe its edge and motivated businesses to start using the platform’s services. In 2010 they received an estimated $20k-$30k of seed funds through startup accelerator Y Combinator.Stripe funding and valuationJohn and Patrick did all they could to try and kick off their idea. They approached people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel to ask them to invest in Stripe.The brothers’ confidence paid off when Thiel led a $2 million seed round with Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz in 2011. In 2012, Sequoia Capital led the Series A round alongside PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, Elad Gil, and Max Levchin, bringing Stripe’s valuation to $100 million. Its valuation crossed the billion-dollar threshold after 2014’s Series C round, led once again by Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and Allen & Company brought in $80 million and raised its valuation to $1.8 billion.In total, Stripe has held ten equity funding rounds, from its pre-seed Y-Combinator round to its most recent, $600 million Series H round that valued the company at a whopping $95 billion. Stripe has raised $2.2 billion from 39 investors, more money than the company needs, making it highly capital efficient. This has also helped the Collison brothers’ net worth go up to $11 billion each.Stripe has become the third most valuable venture-backed private company in the world, and the most valuable in the US earlier this year.I made a video on the topic. If you want to learn more let me know in the comments! see hubwealthy.com/wealthy
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