Stripe acquires Valora wallet team as it builds out stablecoin services

Payments giant Stripe is expanding its crypto operations through its latest acqui-hiring of the team behind crypto startup Valora.

On Wednesday, Valora founder Jackie Bona announced the team would be joining Stripe “to pursue the mission of expanding global access to financial systems.” Terms of the deal were not disclosed, including how many Valora employees would be joining Stripe. 

Launched in 2021, Valora developed a mobile-first, self-custody cryptocurrency wallet app particularly geared for stablecoins on the Celo blockchain. 

According to Bona, Stripe’s acquisition did not appear to include the intellectual property behind Valora’s tech. The app will “continue to live on by returning to its original home at cLabs, which will steward its future development,” she wrote. 

The Block has reached out to Bona for comment. 

Stripe's support of stablecoins 

Stripe, one of the world’s most valuable private companies, has expanded its footprint in the stablecoin space since acquiring Bridge in a landmark $1.1 million deal in late October 2024. Its stablecoin unit appears focused on supporting the full stablecoin lifecycle from issuance, management, and custody services.

In September, Stripe made two major announcements, including unveiling Open Issuance, a platform to assist companies in launching bespoke stablecoins using Bridge's infrastructure, and its support in co-developing the payments-focused Layer 1 Tempo blockchain. The firm is also pursuing a national bank charter in the U.S.

Earlier this year, Stripe also acquired crypto wallet firm Privy.

In an annual letter, Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison wrote that stablecoins represent an “improvement” on the “basic useability of money" after taking years to find product-market fit. Stripe infamously disabled bitcoin payments in 2018 after a failed trial period, and only began to gradually experiment with stablecoins in recent years.

“Stripe shares our conviction that stablecoins and crypto can dramatically expand who gets to participate in the global economy. We also saw significant overlap in shared values and passion for impact in our conversations with the Stripe team,” Bona wrote.

Spinning off from Celo

Valora was spun out of core Celo development group cLabs over four years ago, Bona noted. The project raised $20 million from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital, to support its independent operation. Several celebrities like the NBA’s Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant, YouTuber Casey Neistat, and rappers Nas and Sean 'Diddy' Combs were also backers via a16z’s Cultural Leadership Fund.

The peer-to-peer app was launched in beta in September 2020, with its official debut the following February, coinciding with a separate a16z-led $20 million funding round for Celo, which initially launched as an EVM-compatible Layer 1 before transitioning to become an Ethereum Layer 2.

Valora, which aimed to make it as easy to send crypto as a text message, has previously partnered with P2P apps like M-Pesa to expand into Africa and with stablecoin issuer Tether on global stablecoin adoption. 

Bona has a background in product marketing, having led go-to-market efforts at Google, Twitter, and Spotify.