Canadian eCommerce giant Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) has reportedly invested over $350 million in payment platform Stripe, its exclusive provider of payments processing services.
The investment is believed to have occurred through a series of different transactions, sources at Stripe told the Wall Street Journal.
Over the recent years, Shopify has emerged as one of Stripe’s biggest clients, and the partnership extended further after the eCommerce platform launched bank accounts and debit cards for merchants.
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The sources indicate that Stripe recently allowed investors to acquire a stake in the company from existing shareholders. It is reported that the investor bids amounted to over $4 billion. However, only $1 billion of the bids were filled.
Although Stripe is yet to go public, some of the current shareholders are allegedly suggesting that the shares might be worth more in the future. Besides Shopify, other buyers include mutual-fund company Capital Group Cos., venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital and buyout firm Silver Lake.
Notably, Stripe is advising current employees from selling shares in private dealings not approved by the company. The company reportedly arranges share sales for former employees.
Shopify’s recent growth
Shopify has surged in value over the recent months emerging as one of the beneficiaries of the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s growth is highlighted in the live eCommerce websites.
Our previous research showed that as of November 2020, there were 1.49 million live Shopify websites globally. The United States hosted the highest number of live Shopify eCommerce websites at 1.09 million, representing a 73.24% share.
In recent months, Shopify has also expanded its product offering. On June 15th, 2021, Shop Pay became the first Shopify product to be deployed outside the Shopify merchants. The tool will now be available to entities selling on Facebook and Google even if they don’t use Shopify.
Furthermore, the company is also taking the lead in environmental sustainability. Through Shopify’s Sustainability Fund, the company has unveiled a $5 million kitty into projects that remove atmospheric carbon. Shopify will publish the results in a bid to spark similar action among other companies.
