A Stripe secondary deal worth paying attention to

Venture capitalists and founders are hoping — praying? — for exits to pick back up in 2024. A recent TechCrunch+ survey found that there is consensus among VCs that exits will start to rebound this year, but the when and the how are still a bit fuzzy.

The consensus, though, is that fintech Stripe will go public this year. The investors surveyed clearly aren’t the only ones who are excited about a potential Stripe exit in 2024, either. According to secondary data tracker Caplight, there has been an absolute flurry of buyers looking to get shares in the company in recent months.

While bids tell us one thing, deals tell us another, and a closed transaction this week tells us a lot about what could happen to Stripe in 2024. On Tuesday, literally the day after New Year’s Day, a secondary sale closed that valued Stripe shares at $21.06 apiece; that values the startup at $53.65 billion, according to Caplight data.

Stripe declined to comment.

There are a few reasons why this deal is worth paying attention to. For one, Stripe’s $53 billion value marks an increase from the company’s most recent primary round last March, when Stripe was valued at $50 billion.