Stripe raises $70 million to expand its digital payments service

Stripe, the digital payments company that helped drive Apple Pay’s early success, has raised $70 million in new funding, making it the 14th most valuable startup in the world. Thrive Capital and Sequoia Capital led the round, which values Stripe at $3.5 billion. The company’s market cap is now about $1 billion more than that of popular cloud storage company Box, and is just shy of the valuations for Lending Club and Spotify, according to data from Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal.