Collison brothers get another boost


The Stripe payments platform, co-founded by two Irish brothers in their twenties, is already used to process payments by some of the world's biggest technology companies, including Facebook and Twitter. Stripe, co-founded by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, got another boost yesterday as crowdfunding platform Kickstarter announced it is ditching Amazon Payments in favour of the young fintech firm.

Under the partnership, Stripe will collect and process all payments for projects hosted on Kickstarter’s website.
©Stripe
©Stripe
“Stripe will help Kickstarter’s users reach a broader audience and see higher conversion rates from backers anywhere in the world – especially those coming from mobile devices,” said Kickstarter.
Kickstarter, which has been used to turn devices like the Pebble smartwatch into a reality, said it was forced to make the transition because Amazon is discontinuing the payments product that it has used up until now.
The move to Stripe, set to be completed next week, means that Kickstarter project creators will no longer need to set up an Amazon Payments business account. Instead, they will need to enter their bank account details on the Account tab of their Kickstarter project’s draft.
Under Amazon Payments, it used to take several days for listings to go live on Kickstarter, but the transition to Stripe means that campaigns will go live in minutes.
The company, which is headquartered in San Francisco and recently opened a London office, already processes payments for some of the biggest tech companies, including Facebook and Twitter, as well as several digital startups in London’s Tech City, such as personalised clothes service Thread, cleaning service Hassle, and fundraising site Prizeo.
Stripe prides itself on its ease of use and setup, simple and transparent pricing, and because it offers companies full control over the checkout experience. Specifically, the payments platform enables businesses to accept credit and debit card payments online by integrating a couple of lines of Stripe code on their website.
The firm was most recently valued at $3.5 billion, following a $70 million funding round.
Patrick Collison Tweeted: "Kickstarter is one of my favorite things on the internet. Delighted to have @stripe help out." Last year, his brother John was ranked by Techworld as the second most promising entrepreneur in Britain.