Stripe service launches in the UK

Payments service Stripe has gone live in the UK, becoming the third country to officially launch the service and the first in Europe.

Stripe, which was established by Limerick brothers Patrick and John Collison, allows developers and businesses to accept payments businesses and add payment facilities to their websites more easily than before. It eliminates the need for sellers to set up a merchant account, and has a simplified fee structure that does away with extra charges such as monthly fees and card storage fees.

The service was first launched in the US in September 2011, with Canda following a year later. It has been tested in the UK for some months, but was officially launched today.

Stripe is currently still testing the service in Ireland, with web design agency MOR Solutions in Drogheda adding the payment facility to their ecommerce product.

Other countries readying the launch of Stripe in the coming months are the Netherlands, France and Belgium.

The Collison brothers relocated to the US to develop Stripe, which has been backed by Paypal founders of PayPal Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Max Levchin, along with Sequoia Capital, angel investors and other venture capital funds.

Their previous company, Auctomatic, sold for a reported $5 million in 2008 to a Canadian firm.

The brothers were also named last year by Forbes on the magazine’s “30 under 30” to watch.