The payments company Stripe, which was founded by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, has raised an additional $6.5 billion in funding.
But the money was raised at a valuation of $50 billion, just over half of what the tech company was valued at the last time it raised capital just two years ago.
The round was led by existing Stripe shareholders Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, MSD Partners and Thrive Capital, the company said.
New investors including GIC, Goldman Sachs Asset and Wealth Management and Temasek also took part.
The company said it does not need the money to run its business.
Instead, the funds raised will be used to provide liquidity to current and former employees and address employee withholding tax obligations related to share awards.
This will see some Stripe shares cancelled and used to offset the issuance of new shares to the new investors.
"Over the last 12 years, current and former Stripes have helped build foundational economic infrastructure for millions of businesses around the world, and this transaction gives them the opportunity to access the value they've helped create," said Irishman John Collison, who is a co-founder and president of Stripe.
"But the internet economy is still young, and the opportunities of the next 12 years will dwarf those of the recent past."
"There’s so much to discover and to create. For us, it’s now back to work."
Stripe last raised funding in March of 2021.
At that time, it raised $600m at a valuation of $95 billion.
The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund participated in the round, contributing $50m.
However, since then the downturn in the technology sector has forced firms including Stripe to slash their valuations.
In November Stripe said it would reduce its global workforce by 14%, resulting in 1,000 redundancies.
At the time the firm employed 600 people here.
