San Francisco-based online payments startup Stripe raised another $70 million in funding increasing its valuation to $3.6 billion, according to reports.
Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst Partners laid out the capital which doubled its valuation to $3.57 billion since January. It begs the question, why is Stripe so darn popular when others are struggling?
Stripe, which started in 2009, has a lot of competition, including PayPal, Square and even the new Apple Pay. The difference is that Stripe gives businesses "an easy-to-use computer code they can plug into their website or mobile app to begin accepting credit-card transactions." Stripe does take about 2.9 percent from most transactions and a 30 cent commission, the same as PayPal, so it stays competitive.
The likely advantage is its ease. No messy dongles or equipment -- just code. And it's made a dent in partnering with several companies including Facebook, Twitter and China's Alibaba. It will reportedly be using the capital to expand globally, although it already is used in 18 countries.
