Stripe launches in five more European countries

The online payments company Stripe, founded by the Limerick brothers John and Patrick Collison, has launched in five new European countries. The Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Malta, are these new countries.

This expansion is being co-ordinated from their Dublin office and the COVID-19 crisis has hastened this. Stripe’s availability now enables more European entrepreneurs and businesses to start accepting payments online from around the world in a matter of minutes. This just comes after Stripe raised $600 million in funding last month from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, GV, and Sequoia.

Online companies in the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Malta now gain access to Stripe’s entire product stack to launch, run, and scale their business globally. This includes Stripe Connect for running multi-sided marketplaces, Billing for subscriptions and recurring payments, Radar for fraud detection and prevention, Sigma for analytics, and more.

“Stripe is in 39 countries now, 29 of which are in Europe,” says Matt Henderson, Stripe’s Business Lead for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. “We are excited about bringing Stripe to even more European countries, making payment acceptance and money movement faster and less complicated for everyone. We are nearing our goal of making Stripe universally available to businesses across the continent.”

As more and more companies are moving online because of COVID-19, the need for reliable, easy-to-use infrastructure for internet businesses is never more apparent. Stripe has been empowering all sorts of businesses to move online amid the pandemic – from local bakeries and fruit and veg sellers to event companies and charities. The rate of new businesses going live on Stripe has accelerated since the start of the year.