Stripe has launched Stripe Issuing in 20 countries across Europe, so now European businesses can design, ship and manage cards.
More specifically, the service is now in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK, the company announced in a news release.
In the first year in the U.S., Stripe Issuing processed billions of dollars for millions of cardholders, the company said. Some companies Stripe has signed on include Klarna, Ramp and Flexshopper who have existing card-issuing programs.
“Creating and distributing new cards in Europe has long been so complex and opaque that only a handful of companies could ever justify doing it. Today, we’re making it fast, simple, and secure. It used to take months to create and ship new cards in Europe. With Stripe Issuing, it now takes two days,” Stripe’s EMEA Business Lead Matt Henderson said in a prepared statement.
The service lets users create and deploy virtual and physical payment cards that can be programmatically controlled and is managed through Stripe’s Issuing API. With this launch, Stripe’s customers can also start issuing cards in Europe.
The company has been known over the years for building out “payments infrastructure for the internet.” Millions of companies of all sizes — from startups to Fortune 500s — already use Stripe’s software and APIs to accept online payments, send payouts, and manage their businesses online.
Stripe has had a busy year, back in mid-March the B2B payments company announced it raised a massive $600 million funding round at a $95 billion valuation. The company said it would use the funding injection to invest in its European operations — in particular its Dublin headquarters — “support surging demand from enterprise heavyweights across Europe, and expand its Global Payments and Treasury Network,” according to the news release.