Payments start-up Stripe raised $250 million in additional funding at a new pre-money valuation of $35 billion.

Investors in the latest funding round of payments start-up Stripe included General Catalyst, Sequoia, and Andreessen Horowitz, among others. The latest valuation makes it one of the most highly valued start-ups in the world, even more than Airbnb and DoorDash.

Stripe, which says it builds economic infrastructure for the internet, will use the money to accelerate growth. Stripe primarily helps online businesses through their payments function, and move money around the world.

The payments platform makes its money from swipe charges of 2 to 3% when customers use credit cards or process payments.

International expansion

New markets are essential for growth. Stripe, therefore, plans to have a presence in 40 countries, covering 70% of the world’s economy.

The company says 5 out of 6 new internet users coming online are from areas outside of North America and Western Europe.

“We realized that because internet businesses tend to move more quickly, we need to move more quickly than the traditional finance system,” said John Collison, President. He was speaking in an interview with the New York Times.

Stripe has built a programmable infrastructure for global money movement, the Global Payments and Treasury Network (GPTN).

Payments start-up Stripe to boost product line-up

Products such as Connect, Billing, Terminal, and Radar use the GPTN framework.

New products already launched include Stripe Capital, Stripe Corporate Card, and instantaneous payments into all US Stripe accounts.

However, Stripe will continue to invest in building up GPTN and products based on it.

Payments start-up Stripe to enhance enterprise capabilities

Stripe processes hundreds of billions of dollars a year for millions of enterprises; customers include Wayfair, Twilio, GitHub, and The RealReal.

“Even now, in 2019, less than eight percent of commerce happens online,” said Collison. “We’re investing now to build the infrastructure that’ll power internet commerce in 2030 and beyond.”