Stripe in advanced talks to acquire stablecoin-focused fintech platform Bridge

STRIPE, the payments company founded by billionaire brothers Patrick and John Collison, is in advanced talks to acquire venture-backed fintech platform Bridge.

Stripe has been in talks to acquire the San Antonio, Texas-based company, according to sources familiar with the discussions who asked not to be identified sharing private information. No final decision has been made, the sources said, and either party could still back out of the deal.

A representative for Stripe declined to comment. Bridge CEO Zach Abrams did not respond to multiple e-mails requesting comment.

Bridge’s platform is designed to allow businesses to create, store, send and accept stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s UDSC. The startup has raised a total of US$58 million in funding, Fortune reported in August. Their investors include Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, Index, and Haun Ventures.

Sequoia led Bridge’s most recent round, a US$40 million Series A fund-raising. 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 such as 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.

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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 and Revolut, 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 startup, Evenly, to Square. Abrams is a veteran of crypto exchange Coinbase and business banking startup 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.

Earlier this year, Stripe and several of its investors agreed to buy back more than US$1 billion in shares from employees, a move that valued the company at US$65 billion. Its peak valuation of nearly US$100 billion was achieved in 2021. BLOOMBERG