Stripe’s slowing growth suggests a harsher reality for all payment firms 📉; India continues to disrupt financial services globally 🇮🇳💳; Banks are now fighting for your deposits 🏦
FinTech is Eating the World, 10 April
Hey Everyone,
Happy Easter to everyone who’s celebrating! 🐣 We’re starting off the new week as hot as never before🔥 Today we’re looking at Stripe whose slowing growth suggests a harsher reality for all payment firms (with lots of bonus reads + a deep dive into Adyen, the real payments beast), India that continues to disrupt financial services globally (India will be a driving force in FinTech very soon), and banks that are now fighting for your deposits (& why the banking crisis is far from over). Let’s jump straight into the spicy stuff 🌶
Stripe’s slowing growth suggests a harsher reality for all payment firms 📉
The news 🗞 Stripe’s Annual letter is finally out. It not only provides a solid look into the payment giant’s performance but also gives some unique economic data and perspective you can't get anywhere else.
Let’s take a look.
More on this 👉 First and foremost, the letter reveals what was pretty much known in the past - a significant deceleration in growth last year. Although the number of large business clients surged, Stripe processed over $817 billion in volume in 2022, which is only a 26% YoY increase. This represents a significant slowdown from the previous years.
Nevertheless, Stripe continues to expand internationally, with 55% of new customers based outside the US, and new customers increased by 19% YoY in 2022.
The big companies' list is also growing rapidly, with over 100 companies exceeding $1 billion in payments annually, up by more than 50% each year since 2018. That’s solid!
Insights💡As noted earlier, Stripe’s annual letter has some perspectives you won’t find elsewhere. Here are a few noteworthy:
AI growth is real while large language models (LLMs) will act as Heelys for cognitive tasks:
ICYMI: ChatGPT for Finance is here, and it’s a game-changer 🤯
Silicon Valley is everywhere. Outside the US, the top hubs in Stripe’s data are (in order): London, Singapore, Paris, Tokyo, and Toronto (of these, Tokyo is growing the fastest on a relative basis).
Stripe powers 75% of the 2022 Forbes Cloud 100 and many of the largest internet companies, from Amazon AMZN 0.00%↑ to Zoom ZM 0.00%↑.
Open questions 🤔 However, the company update left some unanswered questions, such as revenue and profits, Stripe's long-anticipated IPO, and the mass layoffs at the payment firm.
ICYMI: Stripe's most expensive mistake ever 🤷♂️
Moreover, Stripe's recent $6.5 billion raise at a $50 billion valuation, a sharp drop from $63 billion last June, was not acknowledged, and it remains unclear whether the firm's slowing growth would keep dragging on its valuation.
ICYMI: OFFICIAL: Stripe halves valuation on $6.5 billion down-round 🤯
Here’s more on this + the takeaway + why all eyes should be on Adyen instead [deep dive]: