OFFICIAL: Stripe halves valuation on $6.5 billion down-round 🤯; Wix continues pushing for unified commerce 👛; What Worldcoin is up to? 👁️

FinTech is Eating the World, 16 March

Hey Everyone,

Good afternoon! There are way too many things happening right now, hence, yesterday’s issue is coming out late. But it’s definitely worth the wait as we’re looking into Stripe that officially halves valuation on $6.5 billion down-round (we're going to unpack it, and explore Stripe’s latest struggles so we could connect the dots), Wix that continues pushing for unified commerce (this is another strong move from Wix!), and see what Worldcoin is up to (it’s pretty scary… 😧). Let’s jump straight into the fascinating stuff 🌶

OFFICIAL: Stripe halves valuation on $6.5 billion down-round 🤯

The news 🗞 Payments giant Stripe has officially (there were rumors before) raised $6.5 billion in a financing round that almost halves its valuation from two years ago 🤯

Primary investors in its new Series I include existing Stripe shareholders - Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, MSD Partners, and Thrive Capital - as well as new investors including GIC, Goldman Sachs Asset and Wealth Management, and Temasek.

More on this 👉 We must remember that the FinTech heavyweight has been cutting its valuation quite consistently. But it was mostly an internal play (also known as the 409A valuation):

The new round is however official and values Stripe at $50 billion. This is a massive discount on its last funding round in March 2021, which was made at a $95 billion valuation. Here’s how it looks right now:

The context 👉 "Stripe does not need this capital to run its business," the company emphasized. Rather the funds raised will be used to provide liquidity to current and former employees and address tax obligations related to equity awards.

What it means? 🤔 In order to unpack it, let’s look at Stripe’s latest struggles and the numbers. This will help to connect the dots.

Separately, it’s a good time to remember deep dives into Adyen & PayPal. Let’s go!