Stripe and Advent International reportedly offer over $53B for PayPal

Payments giant Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have reportedly joined forces to make an offer to buy troubled PayPal in a deal valued at more than $53 billion, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The purported deal, which has been rumored for months, is notable not just for its scale – it would be one of the largest acquisitions of a technology company in recent years – but also for its unusual nature. Privately held startups typically lack the capital and capacity to acquire publicly listed competitors.

Stripe, however, is not a typical private company. The fintech startup was until recently the U.S.'s highest-valued startup before being eclipsed by AI labs Anthropic and OpenAI. In February, the company announced it had secured investor deals providing liquidity to employees at a $159 billion valuation, still ranking it as the world's fourth most valuable startup.

With substantial private capital, having raised some $10.4 billion since inception according to Crunchbase, Stripe has long been one of the most acquisitive venture-backed startups. It has made 21 known acquisitions since its 2010 inception, according to Crunchbase data. Only three have disclosed prices: stablecoin platform Bridge at $1.1 billion (2025), billing software startup Metronome at $1 billion (2026), and Nigerian payments startup Paystack for $200 million (2020).

Stripe's acquisition pace has accelerated sharply since 2020, with 13 of its 21 acquisitions announced since then. Its recent strategy appears focused on stablecoins, crypto infrastructure, billing, and money movement. If the plan to buy PayPal goes through, it would make Stripe an even more formidable player in the crowded payments space and rank as one of the largest acquisitions of a U.S. tech company in the past five years.