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Law360 (April 16, 2020, 9:46 PM EDT ) As the deadly novel coronavirus pushes the economy online, a group of investors has agreed to infuse San Francisco-based fintech startup Stripe Inc. with an additional $600 million to extend its Series G funding round, the online payments business said Thursday.
The contributing investors include General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, among others, who initially infused Stripe with $250 million when the new funding round began in September, according to a press release.
Stripe, which was formed in 2010 in the U.S. and has a prominent market share in Europe, said the impact of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has accelerated the migration of business to the online marketplace. More and more businesses, including Zoom, Caviar, Mattel and NBC, have been joining Stripe to provide for their customers in an online setting, according to the press release.
"People who never dreamt of using the internet to see the doctor or buy groceries are now doing so out of necessity. And businesses that deferred moving online or had no reason to operate online have made the leap practically overnight," Stripe President and co-founder John Collison said in a statement Thursday. "We believe now is not the time to pull back, but to invest even more heavily in Stripe's platform."
With more than $2 billion on its balance sheet and a highly-diversified and global user base, the company said it is in a position to provide uninterrupted service to its users in a time of stress and invest in long-term improvements.
To help its communities and customers navigate the pandemic, Stripe said it is fast-tracking support for telemedicine providers in the U.S. Companies such as health care startup Solv are working with Stripe to provide physician-assisted forms of COVID-19 testing and same-day urgent care, according to the release.
The company is also making it easier to launch a business on Stripe and helping established companies pivot to the internet.
Stripe said it intends to invest further in growing its platform, including continuing to hire for positions around the world, deepening its stack of software functionality to simplify online business, and accelerating its expansion with upcoming launches in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Cyprus and Malta.
Stripe is used by millions of businesses, with well-known examples including online home goods retailer Wayfair Inc., code-hosting platform GitHub Inc. and online consignment shop The RealReal Inc.
Last June, Stripe led a $22.5 million investment for Step, which provides online banking services for people and touts that it aims to promote financial literacy, according to a statement from the time. Stripe was joined in that Series A funding round for Step by Crosslink Capital, Collaborative Fund and Sesame Ventures.
Stripe previously supported bitcoin, although in January 2018 the company halted that practice because fewer customers were using the cryptocurrency as a form of payment.
--Additional reporting by Benjamin Horney. Editing by Jay Jackson Jr.
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