Nope, No IPO: Valued At $9B, Stripe Pretty Happy Staying Private

Payment company Stripe may now command a valuation of $9 billion, drawing a lot of interest from investors, but that doesn’t mean an initial public offering will happen anytime soon.

According to a report by Business Insider, Stripe Chief Financial Officer Will Gaybrick said, while investor interest has been picking up this year as the company has added Fortune 500 companies to its client roster, Stripe is content being a private company, even if other startup darlings, like Uber, Airbnb and Spotify, should become publicly traded companies next year.

“We are very happy as a private company right now,” Gaybrick said in the interview. Gaybrick said the company isn’t gearing up to launch an IPO in 2017 because it simply doesn’t need to. As online shopping and app purchases grow, Stripe will benefit more, noted the report.

Gaybrick said that, during 2016, the payment company spent a lot of its time and money getting new leaders for the company, poaching from the likes of Amazon and Twitter. At the same time, it spent money on engineers for its infrastructure and to keep operations running without any glitches. The funding Stripe raised in November — $150 million from General Catalyst Partners and CapitalG — will go to fund international expansion and the buildout of products. Gaybrick wouldn’t say if Stripe is profitable but did say in the report that the history of venture capital funding is a sign the business has more room to grow.