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Start-up earns its 'Stripe'

Visa, American Express and Sequoia Capital swipe their cards with a fresh dose of funding for digital payments start-up, Stripe

If this decade is to be known for anything, it will be for the start-ups popping up left, right and centre around the globe. Stripe, a digital payments start-up, has got a fresh dose of funding from  Visa, American Express and Sequoia Capital, among others. Founded by brothers Patrick and John Collison five years back, the company is already now valued at $5 billion. The company offers simple software and services for online small and medium-size businesses. Based on the same concept as PayPal and Square, it charges a small fee per transaction. Though Visa has chosen Stripe over PayPal, the latter is still the giant in a market it helped create — processing over $235 billion payments in 2014 — and commands a valuation 10 times that of Stripe.