Stripe Gets Into Lending

Stripe announced Thursday (Sept. 5) the launch of Stripe Capital to simplify the way internet companies can access funds.

It remains difficult for online businesses to get access to capital. Even those companies that can get loans spend hours and hours on paperwork only to wait weeks and sometimes months to get the money, the release indicated.

“Stripe Capital makes it easy for internet businesses to get the funds they need when they need them,” said Will Gaybrick, Stripe’s chief product officer. “It’s important to think about financial inclusion not just in terms of consumers, but also in terms of businesses. Businesses, especially small businesses and startups, are the engines for job creation in our economy. It should be trivially simple and lightning-fast for them to access the capital they need to smooth their cash flow and invest in their own growth.”

When server infrastructure company Xirsys needed increased server capacity to meet user demand, Xirsys turned to Stripe.

“Stripe Capital helped us expand our global footprint,” said Richard Blakely, Xirsys CEO and co-founder. “We used the funding to set up servers in China, India and Japan, allowing us to reach customers all over the world. Since then, we’ve seen our annual revenue more than double.”

Over the past two years, Stripe users have been asking for a way to make tapping into capital easier.

In June, Stripe announced Stripe Terminal, a set of SDKs, APIs, and pre-certified card readers that let users accept in-person payments. It’s now available all over the United States.

“Businesses of all types are already using Stripe Terminal to build their in-person payment experiences,” the company said in a June blog post. “Online-first retailers like Warby Parker are using Terminal to build a fully-customized in-person checkout. Housecall Pro — a software platform that helps more than 50,000 home service professionals run their businesses — now lets its users manage online bookings and accept in-person payments with Stripe all from one app.”