Stripe’s epic new valuation and the value-capture gap between public and private markets

Well, it happened.

Over the weekend, Stripe announced the closure of its widely reported new round of capital. The $600 million round values the payments and banking software company at $95 billion, near the top end of the valuation range at which the company was said to be raising funds back in November 2020.

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Sadly, despite being bigger than most public companies in revenue terms, and now in possession of a valuation on a par with some of the world's leading public companies, Stripe is still being coy with growth metrics. As part of its announcement, Stripe provided a few new notes on its recent scale that we'll unpack, but we're more left to read the entrails of a modest metrics sacrifice at this stage of the company's growth.

But what is The Exchange for, except to dig into the numbers, no matter how vague?

Today, let's examine the company's newly shared growth results, compare them to what we knew previously, and see if we can suss out why Stripe could be worth $95 billion today, and presumably more when it does float.

New money, same questions

Stripe's new $600 million investment values the company at $95 billion. As a reference point, Roblox is worth around $38 billion and closed 2020 out on a run rate of around $1.24 billion.

Gaming companies and payments companies are very different, but Roblox's number gives you a taste of what a company needs to generate in revenue terms in one part of the public markets.

Stripe is likely far larger than Roblox in revenue, but weaker in terms of gross margins. Keep that lens in mind as we remind ourselves of Stripe's known numbers, ending with what we learned from its latest disclosures: