The new valuation is also historically extremely high for an unlisted company. For comparison: Facebook had reached the mark of 80 billion dollars before its IPO in 2012, Uber reached a good 70 billion dollars before the share placement. The stock market valuation of most traditional financial service providers, including many major banks, is already overshadowing Stripe. Stripe wants to use the cash injection, among other things, for accelerated expansion in other countries, as the company announced. Investors include insurers Allianz and Axa, venture capitalists Sequoia and the Irish government's investment arm. San Francisco-based Stripe was founded in 2010 by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison. "We are investing a lot more in Europe this year, especially at our second headquarters in Dublin," said John Collison. In Germany, too, Stripe plans to further expand its business this year. The company is currently active in 42 countries, including 31 in Europe. In the last round of funding in April 2020, Stripe was valued at $ 36 billion. But in the corona pandemic, online retail and delivery services have seen a major boost - and Stripe has also benefited from it. The growth potential is enormous, according to Stripe CFO Dhivya Suryadevara.