Payments giant Stripe has acquired the team behind Valora, a peer-to-peer mobile cryptocurrency wallet, as part of its push into stablecoin infrastructure. Valora’s team will join Stripe to help build tools for issuance, management, and custody of stablecoins, while the app itself will return to cLabs for continued development.
Valora was spun out of Celo’s core development studio over four years ago and has raised $20 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, and high-profile cultural leaders.
Strategic Positioning in Crypto Payments
The acquisition aligns with Stripe’s broader stablecoin strategy, which includes last year’s acquisition of Bridge and the launch of Open Issuance, a platform for companies to create bespoke stablecoins. Stripe has also supported the development of the Tempo blockchain and is pursuing a national bank charter in the US, signaling its intent to provide enterprise-grade crypto infrastructure.
Valora’s experience with mobile-first, self-custody wallets and partnerships with stablecoin issuers like Tether and P2P platforms such as M-Pesa complements Stripe’s aim to expand global access to financial systems.
Market and Institutional Implications
Stripe’s move reflects increasing institutional focus on stablecoins as scalable tools for digital payments. The integration of Valora’s talent strengthens Stripe’s capacity to deliver secure, user-friendly stablecoin solutions across retail and enterprise markets.
The deal also highlights the role of specialized talent in advancing crypto infrastructure, as companies like Stripe compete to provide compliant, high-performance solutions in a rapidly evolving regulatory and technological landscape.
For Valora, this acquisition means the beginning of a new chapter in its business journey.
“Over the years, Valora has become a trusted way to send, save, and use digital assets with ease, demonstrating that global money movement can be better and more inclusive. Through this work, we’ve seen firsthand how access to stablecoins and crypto rails can expand economic opportunity. In the past few months, it became clear that we could accelerate this mission by joining Stripe, one of the world’s leading financial infrastructure platforms,” the Valora team wrote.