Stripe– Company Profile

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Stripe is a leading provider of e-commerce payment gateway solutions. With its revolutionary payments platform, Stripe has successfully created a level playing field for startups and large enterprises. Anyone with a workable idea can now use Stripe’s payment solution to receive payments via their website or mobile app. Using Stripe is easier and hassle free, as one just needs to embed a few lines of code on their website/app. Everything else like regulatory compliance and contracts with banks, payment networks, credit card companies, and consumer wallets are managed seamlessly by Stripe. Some of the top clients of Stripe include Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Uber, NASDAQ, Didi, Grab, Shopify, Spotify, Slack, etc.

History:

The idea for Stripe came to founders Patrick Collison and John Collison (brothers) when they realized the difficulties that businesses faced in managing their payment systems. This was especially difficult for startups, which prompted the Collision brothers to come up with a new payment processing system that can be used by all entities. What started as a small initiative has now grown into a multi-billion dollar business. With Stripe, customers across 135 countries can now accept payments from around the globe. Stripe supports various forms of payment methods such as credit cards, wallets, checkout experience, and local payment platforms. As of now, the company has 14 global offices, more than 1,700 employees, and millions of users. In recent years, Stripe has diversified into other related domains such as fraud detection, business intelligence and startups solutions.

Funding:

Stripe has received total funding worth $785 million through 10 rounds of funding. Top investors include Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, CapitalG, General Catalyst, Tiger Global Management, DST Global, Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and Khosla Ventures.

Acquisitions:

Stripe has acquired various companies in the past such as Touchtech Payments, Tonic (rebranded to RunKit), Kickoff, Payable and Index.

Competitors:

Stripe competes with other payment processing platforms such as Square, PayPal, Adyen, WePay, BillingTree, PayU, and Dwolla.

About the Founders:

Stripe was founded by Patrick Collison and John Collison. Patrick Collison was born in Ireland and took to computer programming at a young age. At age 16, he became the winner of 41st Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2005. Patrick studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but dropped out to launch his own startup called ‘Shuppa’. Prior to Stripe, he had started another company named Auctomatic. Patrick currently serves as the CEO of Stripe.

John Collison has studied at Harvard University and has been with Patrick in all their ventures including Auctomatic and Stripe. John is also a pilot and a pianist. He continues to play a key role in the growth and expansion of Stripe.