Digital payments giant Stripe has hired a law firm to help prepare for a stock market listing according to reports.

The company, which was valued at $95m in a fundraising round earlier this year, hired New York headquartered Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP as a legal advisor on its early-stage listing preparations, according to Reuters. The report, which cited sources, said there has been no decision on the timing of the stock market debut. It added that the next step would be the hiring of investment banks later in 2021, according to the sources. However, a listing would be unlikely to happen this year, two of the sources told Reuters.

In March Stripe said it would add “at least” 1,000 jobs in Dublin over the next five years. The online payments firm, founded by Limerick’s Collison brothers, is now the most valuable ever private technology company in Silicon Valley. Stripe employs over 300 people in its Dublin engineering hub at present, which also serves as the international headquarters of the business.

Stripe processes payments in 42 countries, counting clients such as Deliveroo, N26, Intercom and Donedeal among its thousands of customers. It now counts more than 50 companies that process more than $1bn annually as customers.

Irish Independent, 9th July 2021