Sacerdote: Whale Rock bought a $100M secondary block in Stripe in April 2020
Alex Sacerdote · Why the AI Boom Is Just Getting Started · Invest Like The Best · Jun 9, 2026 · at 18:19
Alex Sacerdote discusses Whale Rock Capital's entry into private tech investing via a secondary market purchase in Stripe during early COVID.
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“I get a call from him during COVID in April of 2020. We knew a lot about Stripe. We didn't have the full financials, but we knew enough that at that valuation, I think it was thirty five billion, we knew they had, they disclosed we had over half a trillion of TPV, and we knew that Audion's take rate was 25 or 30 bips, and we knew Stripe's was 40 or 50. And we knew how many employees they had, so we could kind of get at the profitability. It turned out the take rate was higher. It turned out they were being modest about their TPV. It was much higher than the five 50. It was closer to the one trillion. And, you know, we underwrote the thing under our assumptions, and it was much better. And then we were able to upsize that from the seller to a one hundred million dollar block.”
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