REUTERS: According to sources familiar with the situation, digital payments processor Stripe Inc, the most valuable U.S. technology startup, has hired a law firm to assist with preparations for a public market debut. The 11-year-old firm, which was valued at US$95 billion by investors in a March funding round, has avoided this year’s hot IPO market by using private tender offers to allow some of its existing investors and workers to cash out their interests.
Stripe has been able to keep financial metrics such as revenue and profitability under wraps by being private. However, it is no longer able to use its shares as a publicly traded currency to fund acquisitions or incentivise staff. According to the sources, Stripe has hired Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP as a legal counsel on its early-stage listing preparations. According to the sources, no decision has been made on the timing of the stock market debut, and the next stage will be the hiring of investment banks later this year. According to two of the insiders, the listing is unlikely to materialize this year. Stripe is considering a direct listing rather than an IPO since it does not need to raise money, according to two people, but they cautioned that such intentions could change. Because the discussions are private, the sources requested anonymity. Stripe and Cleary Gottlieb did not respond to requests for comment.
Stripe, founded in 2010 by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, handles hundreds of billions of dollars in transactions for millions of businesses across the world every year. Alphabet Inc’s Google, Uber Technologies Inc, Amazon.com Inc, and Zoom Video Communications Inc are among its clients, as are early investors Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Google’s venture capital arm. Stripe’s rapid growth could see it challenge Chinese internet titans Ant Group and ByteDance for the title of world’s most valuable company by the time it goes public, with values close to US$200 billion. Stripe, which has offices in both Dublin and San Francisco, may go public one day, according to John Collison, who told Bloomberg Television last month that there are no current preparations for a listing. (Anirban Sen in Bengaluru and Echo Wang in New York contributed reporting; Matthew Lewis edited the piece.)/n
