Stripe fuels new phase of fintech revolution with Instant Payouts

20 Sep 2016

Stripe co-founder John Collison. Image: Web Summit/SportsFile

Stripe, the digital payments company started by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, is embarking on a new phase in the digital money revolution by enabling instant payments to a contractors’ Visa or MasterCard debit card.

The move effectively means a mechanic, caregiver, hairstylist or dog walker, for example, can get paid by their clients within minutes, digitally, across Stripe’s Marketplaces platform.

It heralds a new dimension in the relationship between people and businesses and how services are paid for digitally.

Stripe had been testing Instant Payouts as a beta with various platforms, including Lyft, Instacart, goPanache, Postmates and Care.com.

Instant money makes the world go round

Stripe’s Dave Coen said that contractors have been thrilled to receive payments faster.

He said that Lyft, which was the first platform to integrate last November, has already sent over $500 million to drivers using Instant Payouts.

“In fact, Lyft now sends the majority of its driver payouts instantly – the only ridesharing company to do so,” Coen said.

Instant payouts is available to US-based sellers – including drivers, delivery people, errand runners, caregivers, or other contractors – in marketplaces in the US running on Stripe Connect.

There is no indication yet of when the service will arrive in Europe.

Stripe is currently moving into its new European headquarters near ‘Silicon Docks’ in Dublin.

The Instant Payouts feature is being embraced by MasterCard, for example, to power the new MasterCard Send instant payment platform for contractors.

“MasterCard Send addresses the need in today’s digital world to enable consumers, businesses, governments and more to send money instantly and securely, through a robust platform that joins all US debit card accounts with one connection,” said Sherri Haymond, executive vice-president of digital partnerships at MasterCard.

Stripe, started by Irish brothers John and Patrick Collison, was recently valued at $5bn after raising close to $100m from investors including card giant Visa.

Stripe was founded five years ago when Patrick was 22 and John was 19. The Collison brothers previously sold their first start-up, Auctomatic, for $5m to a Canadian company called Live Current Media when they were still teenagers.

Stripe is now one of the fastest-growing tech companies in the Silicon Valley scene and the company has received investment from Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital, Visa and American Express, to name a few.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com