Stripe co-founder John Collison has overseen the fintech giant’s re-entry into the crypto space.
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Months after co-founder John Collison declared, “Crypto is back,” fintech unicorn Stripe is negotiating to accumulate startup Bridge, an infrastructure provider for crypto stablecoins, five sources aware of the discussions said Forbes. The price: $1 billion, three of those people said.
The acquisition, which remains to be being discussed and from which either party can withdraw, is predicted to be the biggest for Stripe, at the very least in recent memory appreciated at $70 billion. Regulatory considerations comparable to licensing in addition to compensation for workers, including Bridge founders Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, remained potential hurdles, two of the sources said.
Stripe declined to comment. Bridge didn’t reply to requests for comment.
The previously unreported $1 billion valuation would represent a big increase over Bridge’s previous funding rounds. The company had previously raised a complete of $58 million per 12 months Assets Articlemost recently a $40 million Series A round that valued the corporate at $200 million, two of the sources said. Bridge has already received interest in a possible Series B raise at a better valuation, they added.
Bloomberg previously reported The corporations discussed a takeover.
After halting crypto payments in 2018 attributable to technical difficulties and high transaction rates, Stripe restarted them in October. Acquiring Bridge would supply the corporate with a backbone to maneuver deeper into stablecoins, that are cryptocurrencies pegged to a different currency or financial instrument. Such coins, which include Tether, USDC and Dai, had a combined market capitalization of greater than $170 billion annually Forbes’ Live digital asset tracker.
Bridge, which offers software that enables businesses to simply accept cross-border payments using stablecoins, has processed greater than $5 billion in annual payment volume, in accordance with a Blog post from investor Sequoia in August. Its customers include government agencies comparable to the US State Department and the US Treasury Department, in addition to corporations comparable to SpaceX and Coinbase. Bridge’s other notable investors include 1confirmation, Bedrock, Haun Ventures, Index Ventures, Oak HC/FT and Ribbit.
Founders Abrams and Yu are also well-known entrepreneurs within the crypto and payments ecosystem. They previously built a Venmo competitor called Evenly, which they sold to Block in 2013. Abrams held senior positions at payments corporations Coinbase and Brex, while Yu worked at DoorDash and Airbnb. The two teamed up again to launch Bridge in 2022.
Stripe has made several acquisitions lately, all on undisclosed terms. In 2021, Stripe acquired TaxJar, a startup that had raised $62 million and received a personal valuation of $179 million from investors, in accordance with data from startup tracker PitchBook; in July, it acquired Lemon Squeezy, a startup that reportedly turned down Series A funding offers.
In early October, Stripe announced the supply of a brand new “Pay with Crypto” feature that integrates stablecoins into its customer checkout offerings while charging a 1.5% transaction fee. In an Oct. 9 interview in regards to the feature, President Will Gaybrick said Forbes that stablecoins could prove to be a more efficient technique of payment for some consumers, particularly outside the US: “One thing we say internally is [that] It turns out the killer app for crypto is just money,” Gaybrick said.
When asked directly whether Stripe was attempting to take over Bridge to assist, Gaybrick replied: “Basically, I can say that we are really investing a lot here [in stablecoins]and I have no news on this topic at this time,” he said.
Additional reporting by Jeff Kauflin and Katie Jennings.
