Silicon Valley-based payments platform Stripe announced the launch of its private beta in the Indian market on Tuesday. The startup revealed that this would be an invite-only beta that Stripe will test with a small group of companies in India.
Stripe says that this private beta will enable the company to test the platform in India and gain feedback in order to better support local requirements of Indian businesses that are looking to accept online payments and use Stripe as a tool for their business.
"We believe that by operating locally in India-with the ability for Indian companies to connect their local bank accounts to Stripe and get paid out in rupees-we can help support even more businesses and more types of business models (such as local marketplaces) in the years to come," Anand Balaji - India Lead, Stripe, said in a blog post announcing the move.
Stripe is an online payments processor that has risen in popularity among software developers and online merchants because of its ease of use. It has also grown its reputation as one of the most well-funded financial technology companies in the world, having raised nearly half a billion dollars since it was formed in 2010. It is among the pack of fintech companies that are looking to transform the payments landscape by taking better advantage of digital technologies to offer more user-friendly financial services and products.
Stripe Atlas, a tool to help Internet businesses set up shop, is already in India and has helped Internet companies in India expand globally. However, Stripe is now bringing the ability to let Indians link local bank accounts to Stripe and get paid out in rupees to localise the process in the country. Stripe will soon also bring in more beta users on the platform to improve the functionality of specific features.
"Now more than ever, India is uniquely positioned to move more commerce online: In just the past two years, the percentage of India's population connected to the internet has more than doubled to 500 million users. And in 2016, India saw more than twice the number of new businesses start as the United States," Balaji added.
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