There’s been a ton of movement in the payments space lately.
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Visa and stripe will now be working closely together on payments, security and new product innovation, the company’s investment is part of a larger round of financing.
The tie-up comes at a time in which tech companies, credit card networks, retailers and startups alike are jostling to carve out their own power position in digital and mobile payments. Stripe already counts Facebook as a customer, helping them accept credit card payments on the back end. Stripe faces multiple competitors including Square, founded by Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey, and PayPal, which was recently spun off into a standalone company by eBay.
In May, Stripe made the code work for American Express and the new alliance will give Stripe access to Visa’s giant base of customers and merchants. The credit card companies, however, see many in the space as a threat to their bottom line.
“If your goal is to increase the GDP of internet and roll out globally faster … the card networks are the blindingly obvious people to work with”, said Collison. “The fact that Visa has chosen to invest in Stripe, not in PayPal, is of absolutely huge significance”.
Stripe puts the most recent funding amount at less than $100 million, with contributions from American Express, Sequoia Capital and Visa.
In 2014, Stripe raised both a Series C and a “Series C-1” round, led by Founders Fund and Thrive Capital respectively, for $150 million in financing just during that year.
But Visa’s investment in Stripe goes beyond a simple fundraise and includes a commercial agreement to “accelerate and extend Stripe’s global footprint” beyond the company’s current 20 markets.
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VatorNews has reached out to Stripe for confirmation of the funding and partnership.
