Stripe Links Small Businesses To Funding Circle Finance

Stripe is adding alternative small business finance company Funding Circle to its Partner Program, enabling Stripe to link small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers to Funding Circle financing.

In a press release issued Wednesday (Jan. 23), Stripe and Funding Circle said their collaboration will let Stripe users integrate their sales data with Funding Circle for faster decisions on loan applications. Stripe noted that its partnership program verifies businesses to ensure data security while providing confidence to SMBs that “Works With Stripe” companies can integrate seamlessly with Stripe.

“With this partnership, Funding Circle will reach the millions of businesses on Stripe to provide more effective options for financing, and will help us in our mission to increase the GDP of the internet,” said Stripe Head of Ecosystem Vicki Lin.

According to the announcement, online commerce accounts for 3 percent of GDP. Stripe aims to increase that percentage by allowing more small businesses to accept online payments, the firm said.

Funding Circle recently floated on the London Stock Exchange, which raked in $392 million for the company. While its IPO in September resulted in a relatively flat stock debut, the firm’s CEO and Co-Founder Samir Desai said in a statement at the time that the public offering was a “milestone” for the company that would enable it to “focus on growth across all markets and seek to create a better financial world for small businesses and investors.”

Stripe completed its own funding round that same month, securing a $245 million investment from Tiger Global Management and a slew of new backers. The round propelled Stripe’s valuation to $20 billion, reports said.

At the time, Stripe Co-Founder John Collison denied any plans for the company to go public.

“We’re fortunate to be in the position that Stripe business is performing very well and the long-term opportunity is that we’re very optimistic to providing the richer stack to businesses,” he said in a statement. “Strong businesses do not always tend to be dependent on outside funding.”