Stripe to setup base in India for payment gateway & merchant services

Global technology payment providers are setting up base in India and the latest among them is Stripe, one of the hottest online payment companies from the Silicon Valley, according to two sources familiar with the development.

The $5-billion company, whose early backers include PayPal cofounders Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, has hired a former Amazon India executive to lead operations and build a localised product. Stripe joins several other online payment services companies like the USbased Mozido and Payoneer, who have also set up offices in India since last year. PayPal, which got demerged from online marketplace eBay last year, is also looking to expand the business in India by working with more merchants.

Young demographics, financial inclusion driven through mobile Internet penetration and focus on financial technology space makes the local market interesting for these companies, besides the growing ecommerce market.

Stripe was founded in 2010 by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison. Its application programming interface (API) can be integrated quickly by an online merchant to start accepting card payments. The company, which according to Crunchbase has raised $290 million, also counts payment company Visa and American Express as investors. The Stripe team is investing in understanding the Indian market, including local nuances and regulatory structure. “India is an important market, and Stripe is focused on developers who it helps build business. They have to take Indian market seriously,” said one of the sources. The company has not yet finalised a launch date.

To lead its efforts, Stripe quietly hired Anand Balaji in March. Balaji was part of Amazon India’s launch team and headed mobile business development. “We don’t comment on future plans, but India is a very exciting market and we’re blown away with the calibre of entrepreneurs we see here,” said a Stripe spokesperson when contacted by EconomicTimes.

The company, which says its aim is to “increase the GDP of Internet” is already present in 25 global markets. According to experts tracking the space, interest from global payments is likely to continue towards India because of several reasons.