Stripe Rolls Out Major Updates To Core Payments Platform

Stripe, the San Francisco digital payment platform popular with Shopify, Instacart and other major online retailers, announced major updates to its software on Thursday (April 23) that will connect users directly with Mastercard, Visa and the world’s other top credit card networks. The company said the initiative also includes a new revenue optimization engine that it expects will boost participating merchants’ revenue by up to $2.5 billion this year.

“While the long-term economic forecast remains uncertain, several years of offline-to-online migration are being compressed into several weeks,” Stripe said in the announcement. “The current disruption underscores the need for [a] reliable, easy-to-use infrastructure for internet businesses. For new (or newly online) businesses, today’s announcements mean increased revenue, reliability and global reach. And for Stripe’s significant enterprise user base – including Wayfair, Peloton, Shopify and Instacart – today’s updates will help maximize authorization rates as they respond to spikes in demand.”

Direct Connection to the World’s Major Card Networks

One of the most significant upgrades is direct global connectivity to the world’s six major credit card systems: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, CB, JCB and China Union Pay.

“This bolsters Stripe’s reliability and ensures better authorization rates for users looking to eke out the best performance,” Stripe said in its statement. “For enterprise customers like Shopify (now handling Black Friday traffic every day) and Instacart (experiencing a 300 percent increase in customer demand year on year), the direct platform helps maximize their growth potential.”

Sherri Haymond, Mastercard’s executive vice president of digital partnerships, lauded the news.

“Mastercard has been collaborating with Stripe to enable opportunity and inclusion for sellers of all sizes across the digital economy,” Haymond said in a statement. “Stripe’s direct connectivity to Mastercard not only allows us to bring innovative payment technology to market faster, but also builds an environment of connected intelligence that reduces fraud on suspect transactions and increases approval rates on valid ones.”

New Revenue Optimization Engine

Stripe is also providing customers with a new revenue optimization engine that will use machine learning and other tools to root out fraud and maximize authorization rates.

Expansion to the ‘Stripe Issuing’ Product

Lastly, Stripe said it’s expanding its Stripe Issuing system, a fully programmable infrastructure that allows companies to quickly create physical or virtual credit cards for customers, employees, drivers or couriers.

Last week, PYMNTS reported that Stripe raised $600 million in Series G funding from Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, GV and General Catalyst.