Over the past two years, Stripe, a payments infrastructure company, has launched a range of new products. Their latest introductions to the market have been to expand the API (application programming interface) beyond its current capabilities. It aims to create a platform for business-related infrastructures and financial services. As of the 24th of May, their latest product has made a debut in the market. Their latest service is called App Marketplace. App marketplace will enable third-party apps to access and use the scripts created by their app publishers and uses themself. These apps will ultimately be incorporated into Stripe. This is said to be one of the biggest launches made by the company.
Stripe's clients are already using 50 apps on the Marketplace, including DocuSign, Dropbox, Intercom, Mailchimp, Ramp, and Xero, as part of their marketing, payments, and business development stacks. Stripe's scripts that integrate those apps with Stripe will initially be free. The goal is to get some critical mass around usage so barriers are low. But because it's a marketplace and Stripe wants to encourage more third parties to build apps for that ecosystem, Stripe may charge for some of those scripts in the future. Customers will be charged directly if they are not already subscribers for third-party apps that are part of those scripts and are paid services. Stripe, like the scripts, may eventually offer new payment methods to its platform.
The main idea behind creating this app was to allow users to speed up their business operations while keeping them within the Stripe ecosystem. The co-founder of Stripe, John Collison, has stated that the App Marketplace is the same as any operating system. It has the basic functionality, but its performance is flawless and right out of the box. He also added that this app resulted from Stripe's user's request, who wanted the liberty to have the option to work with the company.
Stripe's app store went live on the 24th of May. However, the option of app installation might take a few weeks. The company's goal is to expand the Marketplace in the upcoming months and years and include other apps in various languages.
About Stripe
Stripe was founded in 2010 and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a developer-oriented commerce company that aids enterprises accept web and mobile payments. Over the past years, the company has tried to make a mark in the industry. It has attempted to make small moves to expand its reach and has moved beyond payments. Stripe has made inroads in adjacent industries like money advances, business incorporation and tax calculations. The company has seen 51 investors as of today, which includes other enterprises like Ethos VC and the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA). It has raised nearly USD 2.2 billion in investments.
