Stripe Reveals Total Payments To Surpass $1 Trillion By 2023

Fintech giant Stripe revealed in its annual letter announced on Wednesday that it surpassed $1 trillion in total payments in 2023, up 25% from 2022.

The milestone, which comes 15 years after the company was founded, offers a glimpse into the finances of one of the world’s largest private companies and how fast it is growing. For comparison, PayPal surpassed $1 trillion in total payments in 2021, 23 years after its founding.

Co-founders and brothers Patrick and John Collison attribute growth to Stripe’s enterprise business, fast-growing startups adopting its products, and invoicing and tax services.

“We’ve spent a lot of time focusing on that top-line growth,” Stripe president John Collison said in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Box” that aired Wednesday.

“We spent all of last year with people predicting all kinds of doom and gloom,” he said, adding that “consumer spending has held up really well so far.”

Stripe was valued at $65 billion as of the company’s latest IPO, completed last month. That’s up from its last estimate of $50 billion, but still a long way from its peak of $95 billion in 2021.

“Startups don’t do themselves any favors by denying that there is a new economic reality,” Collison told Sorkin. “We’ve always been very shareholder-oriented. We wanted to provide shareholders with access to liquidity, that’s why we made the tender offer last year, that’s why we made the tender offer this year.”

The company’s annual letter also revealed some surprising statistics about startups.

Despite frosty fundraising conditions for startups last year, which fell to a six-year low according to PitchBook, the Collison brothers say their data shows that startups founded in 2022 are generating revenue at a faster rate than those founded in 2019. In particular, artificial intelligence companies are outperforming other sectors.

“Things got a little crazy in the 2021 peak … startups are focusing on more profitable growth,” Collison explained to Sorkin on “Squawk Box.” “Because the inference costs are so high for AI products, you actually tend to see paid products from these startups much sooner than you would from other companies.”