SINGAPORE (March 16): GIC and Temasek are among new investors in Irish-American financial services and software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Stripe, which announced on March 16 a Series I fundraise of more than US$6.5 billion ($8.78 billion) at a US$50 billion valuation.

Primary investors include existing Stripe shareholders — Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, MSD Partners and Thrive Capital — as well as new investors GIC, Temasek and Goldman Sachs Asset and Wealth Management, among others.

The funds raised will be used to provide liquidity to current and former employees and address employee withholding tax obligations related to equity awards, resulting in the retirement of Stripe shares that will offset the issuance of new shares to Series I investors.

Stripe says in a press release that it does not need this capital to run its business.

Irish entrepreneur brothers John and Patrick Collison founded Stripe in Palo Alto, California, in 2009. In 2011, the company received an investment of US$2 million, including from PayPal co-founders Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, Irish entrepreneur Liam Casey, and venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and SV Angel.

“Over the last 12 years, current and former Stripes have helped build foundational economic infrastructure for millions of businesses around the world, and this transaction gives them the opportunity to access the value they’ve helped create,” says John Collison, co-founder and president of Stripe. “But the internet economy is still young, and the opportunities of the next 12 years will dwarf those of the recent past. There’s so much to discover and to create. For us, it’s now back to work.”

Goldman Sachs served as sole placement agent on the transaction, while JP Morgan acted as a financial adviser.