Stripe Inc, one of the most valuable start-ups on this planet, is partnering with American elite banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. in offering corporate-banking services.
This is as the fast-rising startup, known for simplifying payment, seeks to diversify its business offering, amid a competitive ecosystem that includes PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, Adyen.
Stripe, best known for handling millions of online businesses and e-commerce web pages, will soon start offering some of its client’s interest yielding bank accounts, debit cards, and other cash-management services, according to a report credited to WSJ.
However, these service offerings listed are for its merchants and vendors that do business with Stripe.
- Sources revealed how Stripe had raised $600 million to invest and acquire payments companies in developing nations. It disclosed that Nigerian startup, Paystack, had been on Stripe’s bucket list for a while since 2018 when Stripe led an $8 million funding round for it.
- Stripe acquired Paystack for an undisclosed deal believed to be worth over $200 million, making it the biggest fintech startup acquisition to date to come out of Nigeria, as well as Stripe’s biggest acquisition to date.
Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, spoke on the company’s strategy at the time it acquired Paystack. He said:
“Stripe thinks on a longer time horizon than others, because we are an infrastructure company. We are thinking of what the world will look like in 2040-2050.”
He added that Stripe also planned to understand the ecosystem and keep its eyes open so it would see where help was needed, as the company did not tie up its investments into “complicated strategic investments.”
