Stripe , the startup that lets app publishers, online merchants and other digital businesses include payments features via a few lines of code, is expanding in Asia. After launching in Singapore two weeks ago, the startup is now officially opening for business in Japan . And alongside the Japan launch, Stripe is also picking up a new investor: Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company , the largest credit card provider in the country, is taking a stake in the startup. Sumitomo Mitsui and Stripe are not disclosing the amount that is getting invested, but we do know it is strategic: the companies have been partnering on the beta of Stripe’s Japan service, which started in May 2015. Sumitomo Mitsui, which was the first partner for Visa in Japan (Visa is also a Stripe backer), is also partnering with Stripe on the full, official rollout. It’s helping specifically in areas like multicurrency acceptance: merchants and other businesses in Japan can use Stripe to sell goods in some 130 different currencies — a big advance on current offerings that are restricted to yen. (Doing some simple calculations, I’m guessing that Sumitomo Mitsui’s investment is at least $10 million and a follow on from its previous round: Crunchbase lists $290 million in funding for Stripe, while Stripe itself, in the press release it sent me for this latest news, notes that it has raised “around $300 million” at a valuation of $5 billion, which was the same valuation it had around a funding round it announced in July 2015 .) While in beta, Stripe said its customers included airline All Nippon Airways, e-commerce platform BUYMA, event app Peatix, and SmartHR. That’s in a way a mirror of the range of companies that Stripe has picked up among its 100,000 customers to date: they include […]
