Staff working for Stripe in Europe and Asia earned an average $137,800 (€114,826) in 2019 before the Covid crisis saw the company's valuation surge, newly filed accounts show.
Stripe Payments International Holdings Limited, which covers offices in cities including Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, London, Melbourne, Paris, Singapore and Tokyo, employed an average of 365 people in 2019. This marked a sharp rise on the 195 working for the online payments business a year earlier.
In tandem with the rise in staff numbers, the amount the company paid out in wages and salaries more than doubled from $23.75 million to $50.3 million.
Key management remuneration for the financial year amounted to $3.24 million payable to 13 employees. This includes share-based compensation of $224,000. The directors of the company did not receive any form of compensation for their services during the financial year.
A year earlier, some 15 key management employees received compensation of $3.12 million, including share-based compensation of $647,000.
Administrative expenses ballooned during the year under review to $204.5 million from $93.5 million in 2018 due to the increase in employee numbers. The company’s cost of sales also increased on the back of expansion into new markets, rising $244 million from $454.5 million to $699 million.
A breakdown of staff numbers shows 135 people working in administration with 94 in engineering, 84 in sales and 52 in user operations.
Stripe, which was recently valued at €95 billion (€79 billion) following a fundraise that also saw it announcing 1,000 new jobs in the Republic, was founded by Patrick and John Collison in 2010.
Revenues
The latest company documents filed in Dublin show the international operation recorded a 51 per cent rise in revenues from Europe and Asia ahead of the Covid crisis to $800 million. This compares with turnover of $529 million in 2018.
The Irish Times understands revenues have risen substantially since 2019 with the company experiencing a massive surge in business as more companies rushed to beef up their online presence during the pandemic.
The international subsidiary reversed a $20.5 million pretax loss in 2018, recording a $46.6 million profit.
The accounts show all of Stripe’s international intellectual property was transferred to the Republic in 2019 in a $10.95 billion move in 2019.
Stripe Payments International Holdings Limited was tax resident in Bermuda at the time of the reporting period. It has since become resident in the Republic of Ireland instead.
