Stripe rolls-out its subscription billing service in Europe

Online payments group Stripe is bringing its subscription billing service to Europe just over a year after it launched in North America.

Stripe Billing is intended to simplify the recurring billing process by enabling businesses of all sizes to have access to enterprise-grade tools to implement subscription models quickly and at scale.

Billing brings together advanced machine learning with automatic card updates to help businesses increase recurring revenue.

The solution includes support for value added tax (VAT) across the European Union. It also automatically generates invoices on business' behalf and provides an easy path to strong customer authentication (SCA) compliance for online subscriptions.

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This is a new EU regulation that comes into effect in September that is forecast to radically change the way European customers buy online.

The legislation, which forms part of the PSD2 “open banking” regulations, requires businesses to build an extra layer of authentication into online card payments.

Stripe, which was established by Limerick-born brothers Patrick and John Collison in 2009, last week acquired Irish fintech start-up Touchtech Payments, a company that provides advanced SCA technology for companies such as N26 and Transferwise.

"Subscription and software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies have been some of the internet's greatest success stories up to now, but we've barely scratched the surface of what's possible, especially here in Europe," said Tara Seshan, product manager for the solution.

“With Stripe Billing, companies of all sizes now have access to advanced invoicing tools that will also help them comply with SCA and VAT requirements,” she added.

A number of European companies are already using Stripe Billing in beta. These include Irish tech start-up Huggity, and the Jack and Jill Children's Foundation.