Goldman Sachs created a private markets platform to give wealthy investors exposure to pre-IPO companies like the next SpaceX or Stripe, formalizing Wall Street's push into late-stage private deals.
Jul 21, 2026Goldman Sachs launched a new alternative investments platform giving wealthy clients direct stakes in individual private companies rather than broad funds, as investors clamor for pre-IPO access to names like SpaceX and Stripe.
Jul 21, 2026A 193-day-old startup raised $30 million from Forerunner to build payments infrastructure for AI agents, positioning directly against Stripe.
Jul 20, 2026Natural raised a $30 million Series A from Forerunner to build an orchestration layer letting AI agents move money and settle transactions without a human authorizing each step, positioning directly against Stripe.
Jul 20, 2026PayPal's board is convening as soon as today to weigh a $53 billion buyout offer from Stripe and Advent International at $60.50 a share, a bid that would make Stripe co-owner of the payments company it once tried to disrupt.
Jul 20, 2026Stripe's acquisition pace has accelerated meaningfully, with nothing rivaling its reported interest in a roughly $53 billion PayPal-related deal, a scale of ambition unusual for a still-private fintech giant.
Jul 15, 2026