11 ms·

Stripe Raises New Funding and Partners with Visa

168 points by brianchu 11y ago

mahmoudimus 11y ago
Congratulations to Patrick, John, & the hardworking team @ Stripe! Looking forward to more stellar growth in the future. An investment by AMEX is acknowledgement of an interesting company in the card space. However, an investment by Visa is essentially an industry nod of approval. Seriously can't wait to see what else they have in store.
- danenania 11y ago
  I'd be happier if they tried to take out the credit card cartel rather than seeking its approval. They're in as good a position as anyone to make progress in that direction, but I suppose everyone has their price.
  - nchelluri 11y ago
    If I had to attempt to predict the future, I'd say give it time...
thejosh 11y ago
The nice thing about Stripe is that they have really shaken up the online payments here in Australia. They are 1.75%+30c per transaction here, and that caused the others to drop down to that as well (even Braintree which was one the last IIRC). eWay is still 2.6%, hopefully that changes too. So thanks Stripe for your awesome API & team.
- objclxt 11y ago
  In the US Stripe charges 2.9%. That's 66% more than in Australia. Do you think it costs Visa that much extra to process a payment in the US? No, it clearly does not. Whilst I'll happily congratulate Stripe for the investment, I don't myself see it as a good thing. With Stripe having investments from both Visa and AmEx they have little incentive to challenge the current fee structure. Stripe processes its payments in the US through a strategic deal with Wells Fargo, who have a substantial (> $1 billion) investment in Visa, who in turn have an investment in Stripe. Do any large retailers or merchants have similar investments in Stripe? I don't believe they do. If you're a merchant I wouldn't see Visa and American Express investing and taking equity in Stripe as a good thing. These are companies that have every possible reason to keep credit card fees as high as possible and prevent regulation from reducing them (which is exactly why Australia's fees are much lower - they're regulated). I like Stripe as a company. I think they do great stuff. But a Stripe that's received investment from the card networks is a Stripe less likely to make disruptive moves to break the monopoly card networks have today.
  - j3persson 11y ago
    VISA provides a valuable service, and they need to get paid. It's not like Stripe is now just another cog in the machine. Well, this likely secures their future.
    - objclxt 11y ago
      > VISA provides a valuable service Do they? Consider Brazil or the Netherlands, countries where the dominant way to pay for things online is by direct bank transfer. In the case of the Netherlands, iDEAL represents 54% of online transactions and offers instant transfer out of a customer's bank account at virtually zero cost to a merchant. Compare that to Visa in the US, where you get your payments several business days later at a substantial fee. What valuable service is Visa providing? They're not. I don't believe you'll be able to find a single large merchant in the US who thinks Visa provide anything approaching a valuable service.
      - Dwolb 11y ago
        This argument is silly. Value is determined by price and benefit. If VISA were not providing value, then no one would pay for their services. However this is not the case and we can find through unverified online sources that, "VISA creates value for all its stakeholders during the process. Cardholders’ benefit because of convenience, security, and rewards associated with card payments. Merchants benefit from improved sales by offering payment method options to the customers. Banks get new revenue streams through card fees, late payment interests, and transaction fee cuts." [1] [1] http://bmimatters.com/2012/03/19/understanding-visa-business-model/ http://bmimatters.com/2012/03/19/understanding-visa-business...
        datashovel 11y ago
        You are living in a dream world. Give me access to Visa / US banking infrastructure and I'm 100% certain I can find ways to bring down costs by at least 99% and probably at the same time make it more secure and consumer friendly. Take the laissez–faire attitude in government, with a sprinkling of corruption at the highest levels of the financial industry, and you get merchant costs that you have in the US. Wow, what a claim, right? Let me ask you this. In what industry in the history of the world's economies can prices (such as those that banks / credit cards charge merchants) remain so stable in a truly competitive environment? Let me help you. The answer is NONE.
- bluecalm 11y ago
  Meanwhile I pay ~6.5% for every transaction using PayPal because of their clever combination of first charging for cc (3.5%-3.9% for international transactions) and then another 3% mandatory currency conversion fee because they don't allow withdrawing USD to USD accounts not in US (so living in Europe I don't have any options other than to convert USD to my currency on their terms). Can't wait for some competition to come to Poland. (for the record market price for currency conversion is way below 0.5%).
  - germanier 11y ago
    Rocket Internet's Stripe clone Paymill is available in Poland.
- sleepyhead 11y ago
  Surpassingly low for Stripe. Here in Norway it is cheaper than in the US but still quite more expensive than other options (no set up costs though). 2.4% for local cards and 2.9% for international cards. And to charge in USD you need a US bank account otherwise you are hit with a 2% conversion fee (ridiculously high).
plumeria 11y ago
If anyone from Stripe is reading this... Please, come to Costa Rica (come to Central America for that matter). We already have Paypal and 2Checkout. Having Stripe will help the local tech community develop even more rapidly.
- msellout 11y ago
  Off-topic: I'd like to get in touch with Pythonistas in Costa Rica. Send me an email? (address in profile)
  - plumeria 11y ago
    I've sent you an email.
arianvanp 11y ago
can somebody explain why we have credit cards to me? Where I live it's kinda uncommon and I can't even get one as a student. And I never saw the need for one either as we can just pay everything with direct bank transfers. And yes you can undo bank transfers. I just don't get the obsession? Why would anyone ever want debt? We have money to pay for stuff, why not use your money instead?
- Swizec 11y ago
  I have a credit card, but not the american kind of credit card. I have the European kind that gets locked and blocked if it isn't paid off by the end of the billing period (1 month). Why would you not want a 3,000 euro interest-free one-month loan? Sometimes you have to deal with bulk expenses that you have the money for, but not the liquidity[1]. In that case credit cards become really useful. [1] In a recent example I had just moved into a new apartment and had to cover a move-in cost, $2000 worth of IKEA furniture, and $3000 worth of next month's rent in the span of two weeks. All in all some $6000 worth of expenses. It all worked out, but it wouldn't have had I not had access to the liquidity magic of a credit card.
  - teh_klev 11y ago
    > I have a credit card, but not the american kind of credit card. I have the European kind that gets locked and blocked if it isn't paid off by the end of the billing period (1 month). That's sounds more like a charge card, kinda like an Amex. Your bog standard Visa/Mastercard credit card only locks and blocks if you don't pay the minimum repayment amount at the end of the month which is usually around 2.5% of the outstanding balance. There's nothing particularly "american" about this, it's pretty standard around the world.
    - Swizec 11y ago
      I've had both Visa and MasterCard and they both behaved like that - if you didn't pay it off in full every month, it would block. And everyone I know who isn't American has said the same thing about their credit cards of any kind.
WormyMcSquirmy 11y ago
I wonder what this means for CyberSource, Visa's already merchant facing company.
nailer 11y ago
Knowing Visa's business practices and being a Stripe customer this does not make me comfortable.
- pbreit 11y ago
  Care to elaborate?
  - valisystem 11y ago
    Can't find source but I remember reading here the story of a payment business that competed with VISA and was taking off until VISA started threatening his client, making them fear that their payment wouldn't be processed at some point, and they would be subject to fines, if not worse. I remember reading other stories on the same line, about visa using shady approaches to frighten people to preserve their monopoly, but a quick search can't bring any up. Search terms are too generic.
tommccabe 11y ago
Really fascinating that Visa is a partnere here when they already own Cybersource, which is a key player in the enterprise e-commerce payment space. The $5b valuation is higher than what Visa paid to acquire Cybersource ($2b) in 2010. Would be great to see the additional features from Cybersource (tax calculation, address verification, fraud management) available with the ease of integration that Stripe provides.
- jusben1369 11y ago
  Don't forget Authorize.Net too.
vizzah 11y ago
Stripe must introduce cross-border card 2 card payments asap (available for many countries). It's a killer feature and as far as I know is not available by any major world-wide player yet, just on per-country basis.
lucaspottersky 11y ago
right. So now we need a new Stripe in order to continue disrupting the market.

168 points by brianchu 11y ago

Congratulations to Patrick, John, & the hardworking team @ Stripe! Looking forward to more stellar growth in the future. An investment by AMEX is acknowledgement of an interesting company in the card space. However, an investment by Visa is essentially an industry nod of approval. Seriously can't wait to see what else they have in store.

danenania 11y ago
I'd be happier if they tried to take out the credit card cartel rather than seeking its approval. They're in as good a position as anyone to make progress in that direction, but I suppose everyone has their price.
- nchelluri 11y ago
  If I had to attempt to predict the future, I'd say give it time...

thejosh 11y ago

The nice thing about Stripe is that they have really shaken up the online payments here in Australia. They are 1.75%+30c per transaction here, and that caused the others to drop down to that as well (even Braintree which was one the last IIRC). eWay is still 2.6%, hopefully that changes too. So thanks Stripe for your awesome API & team.

objclxt 11y ago
In the US Stripe charges 2.9%. That's 66% more than in Australia. Do you think it costs Visa that much extra to process a payment in the US? No, it clearly does not. Whilst I'll happily congratulate Stripe for the investment, I don't myself see it as a good thing. With Stripe having investments from both Visa and AmEx they have little incentive to challenge the current fee structure. Stripe processes its payments in the US through a strategic deal with Wells Fargo, who have a substantial (> $1 billion) investment in Visa, who in turn have an investment in Stripe. Do any large retailers or merchants have similar investments in Stripe? I don't believe they do. If you're a merchant I wouldn't see Visa and American Express investing and taking equity in Stripe as a good thing. These are companies that have every possible reason to keep credit card fees as high as possible and prevent regulation from reducing them (which is exactly why Australia's fees are much lower - they're regulated). I like Stripe as a company. I think they do great stuff. But a Stripe that's received investment from the card networks is a Stripe less likely to make disruptive moves to break the monopoly card networks have today.
- j3persson 11y ago
  VISA provides a valuable service, and they need to get paid. It's not like Stripe is now just another cog in the machine. Well, this likely secures their future.
  - objclxt 11y ago
    > VISA provides a valuable service Do they? Consider Brazil or the Netherlands, countries where the dominant way to pay for things online is by direct bank transfer. In the case of the Netherlands, iDEAL represents 54% of online transactions and offers instant transfer out of a customer's bank account at virtually zero cost to a merchant. Compare that to Visa in the US, where you get your payments several business days later at a substantial fee. What valuable service is Visa providing? They're not. I don't believe you'll be able to find a single large merchant in the US who thinks Visa provide anything approaching a valuable service.
    - Dwolb 11y ago
      This argument is silly. Value is determined by price and benefit. If VISA were not providing value, then no one would pay for their services. However this is not the case and we can find through unverified online sources that, "VISA creates value for all its stakeholders during the process. Cardholders’ benefit because of convenience, security, and rewards associated with card payments. Merchants benefit from improved sales by offering payment method options to the customers. Banks get new revenue streams through card fees, late payment interests, and transaction fee cuts." [1] [1] http://bmimatters.com/2012/03/19/understanding-visa-business-model/ http://bmimatters.com/2012/03/19/understanding-visa-business...
      - datashovel 11y ago
        You are living in a dream world. Give me access to Visa / US banking infrastructure and I'm 100% certain I can find ways to bring down costs by at least 99% and probably at the same time make it more secure and consumer friendly. Take the laissez–faire attitude in government, with a sprinkling of corruption at the highest levels of the financial industry, and you get merchant costs that you have in the US. Wow, what a claim, right? Let me ask you this. In what industry in the history of the world's economies can prices (such as those that banks / credit cards charge merchants) remain so stable in a truly competitive environment? Let me help you. The answer is NONE.
bluecalm 11y ago
Meanwhile I pay ~6.5% for every transaction using PayPal because of their clever combination of first charging for cc (3.5%-3.9% for international transactions) and then another 3% mandatory currency conversion fee because they don't allow withdrawing USD to USD accounts not in US (so living in Europe I don't have any options other than to convert USD to my currency on their terms). Can't wait for some competition to come to Poland. (for the record market price for currency conversion is way below 0.5%).
- germanier 11y ago
  Rocket Internet's Stripe clone Paymill is available in Poland.
sleepyhead 11y ago
Surpassingly low for Stripe. Here in Norway it is cheaper than in the US but still quite more expensive than other options (no set up costs though). 2.4% for local cards and 2.9% for international cards. And to charge in USD you need a US bank account otherwise you are hit with a 2% conversion fee (ridiculously high).

plumeria 11y ago

If anyone from Stripe is reading this... Please, come to Costa Rica (come to Central America for that matter). We already have Paypal and 2Checkout. Having Stripe will help the local tech community develop even more rapidly.

msellout 11y ago
Off-topic: I'd like to get in touch with Pythonistas in Costa Rica. Send me an email? (address in profile)
- plumeria 11y ago
  I've sent you an email.

arianvanp 11y ago

can somebody explain why we have credit cards to me? Where I live it's kinda uncommon and I can't even get one as a student. And I never saw the need for one either as we can just pay everything with direct bank transfers. And yes you can undo bank transfers. I just don't get the obsession? Why would anyone ever want debt? We have money to pay for stuff, why not use your money instead?

Swizec 11y ago
I have a credit card, but not the american kind of credit card. I have the European kind that gets locked and blocked if it isn't paid off by the end of the billing period (1 month). Why would you not want a 3,000 euro interest-free one-month loan? Sometimes you have to deal with bulk expenses that you have the money for, but not the liquidity[1]. In that case credit cards become really useful. [1] In a recent example I had just moved into a new apartment and had to cover a move-in cost, $2000 worth of IKEA furniture, and $3000 worth of next month's rent in the span of two weeks. All in all some $6000 worth of expenses. It all worked out, but it wouldn't have had I not had access to the liquidity magic of a credit card.
- teh_klev 11y ago
  > I have a credit card, but not the american kind of credit card. I have the European kind that gets locked and blocked if it isn't paid off by the end of the billing period (1 month). That's sounds more like a charge card, kinda like an Amex. Your bog standard Visa/Mastercard credit card only locks and blocks if you don't pay the minimum repayment amount at the end of the month which is usually around 2.5% of the outstanding balance. There's nothing particularly "american" about this, it's pretty standard around the world.
  - Swizec 11y ago
    I've had both Visa and MasterCard and they both behaved like that - if you didn't pay it off in full every month, it would block. And everyone I know who isn't American has said the same thing about their credit cards of any kind.

WormyMcSquirmy 11y ago

I wonder what this means for CyberSource, Visa's already merchant facing company.

nailer 11y ago

Knowing Visa's business practices and being a Stripe customer this does not make me comfortable.

pbreit 11y ago
Care to elaborate?
- valisystem 11y ago
  Can't find source but I remember reading here the story of a payment business that competed with VISA and was taking off until VISA started threatening his client, making them fear that their payment wouldn't be processed at some point, and they would be subject to fines, if not worse. I remember reading other stories on the same line, about visa using shady approaches to frighten people to preserve their monopoly, but a quick search can't bring any up. Search terms are too generic.

tommccabe 11y ago

Really fascinating that Visa is a partnere here when they already own Cybersource, which is a key player in the enterprise e-commerce payment space. The $5b valuation is higher than what Visa paid to acquire Cybersource ($2b) in 2010. Would be great to see the additional features from Cybersource (tax calculation, address verification, fraud management) available with the ease of integration that Stripe provides.

jusben1369 11y ago
Don't forget Authorize.Net too.

vizzah 11y ago

Stripe must introduce cross-border card 2 card payments asap (available for many countries). It's a killer feature and as far as I know is not available by any major world-wide player yet, just on per-country basis.

lucaspottersky 11y ago

right. So now we need a new Stripe in order to continue disrupting the market.