Stripe in talks to acquire stablecoin fintech platform
Patrick and John Collison, the co-founders of Stripe. While Stripe has long been perceived as a top fintech IPO contender, the company’s founders have emphasised that they are in no rush to go public.
Payments company Stripe is in advanced talks to acquire venture-backed fintech platform Bridge.
Stripe, founded by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, has been in talks to acquire the San Antonio, Texas-based company, according to people familiar with the discussions who asked not to be identified sharing private information.
No final decision has been made, the people said, and either party could still back out of the deal.
A representative for Stripe declined to comment. Bridge CEO Zach Abrams didn’t respond to multiple emails requesting comment.
Bridge’s platform is designed to allow businesses to create, store, send and accept stablecoins like Tether’s USDT and Circle’s UDSC. The start-up has raised a total of $58m (€53.2m) in funding, Fortune reported in August. Their investors include Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, Index, and Haun Ventures.
Sequoia led Bridge’s most recent round, a $40m (€36.7m) Series A fundraising. In a blog post published at the time, the venture capital firm hailed the market opportunity for stablecoins created in part by moves by companies like Stripe.
A tie-up would add fuel to Stripe’s recent moves into stablecoins, an increasingly popular alternative payments mechanism. Last week, Stripe said it would once again be allowing merchants in the US to accept crypto payments in the form of USDC, ending a six-year hiatus from processing digital tokens.
Earlier this month, Visa announced a new platform for banks to issue their own fiat-backed tokens, including stablecoins. Other financial technology companies, including Robinhood Markets Inc. and Revolut Ltd., are considering launching stablecoins of their own.
Abrams co-founded Bridge less than two years ago with Sean Yu, who serves as Chief Technology Officer. The pair sold a previous start-up, Evenly, to Square.
Abrams is a veteran of crypto exchange Coinbase and business banking start-up Brex; Yu’s experience includes time at Airbnb and Coinbase.
While Stripe has long been perceived as a top fintech IPO contender, the company’s founders have emphasised that they are in no rush to go public.
