Stripe Launches in Australia
Stripe launched in Australia Monday, and has also begun testing in three Scandinavian countries. The three-year-old payments startup, which is backed by a trio of PayPal co-founders, is slowly growing its global presence.
Stripe’s latest international expansion comes after striking a rare deal with Chinese payments service Alipay, an affiliate of Alibaba Group, to allow Chinese buyers to pay for purchases on the US service.
Stripe now operates in several countries including Canada, Britain and Ireland, and is beta-testing in European countries such as Finland and Switzerland. It began beta-testing on Monday in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Stripe’s multicurrency service is touted as an easy way for businesses to accept payments from around the world. It takes a percentage off transactions across its platform. “Stripe’s mission is to grow Internet commerce by providing everything an online business needs to accept payments,” said John Collison, co-founder and president of Stripe.
Stripe has raised US$130 million from investors. It was valued at US$1.75 billion in a January round of funding from venture capitalists, including Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund. Other backers include Andreessen Horowitz and PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk.