Specifically, Stripe intends to establish a joint venture with State Bank of India and is looking to acquire a significant stake in SBI Payments Ltd, as reported by Hindu Business Line. Currently, SBI Payments is a joint venture between State Bank of India and Hitachi Payments Services Private Limited, with SBI holding a 74% stake and Hitachi holding the remaining stake. Stripe aims to acquire a 30% to 40% stake from SBI.
The acquisition is expected to be executed through Stripe’s Indian subsidiary, Stripe India Private Limited, which received a licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as an online payment aggregator in January 2024. The RBI's payment aggregator framework, introduced in March 2020, mandates that all payment gateway operators obtain a licence for acquiring merchants and implementing digital payment solutions.
Discussions are ongoing with the RBI, and the regulator has reportedly provided feedback to Stripe on issues related to risk management and data protection. Stripe is working on addressing these concerns and plans to seek regulatory approval for the investment in SBI Payments according to inc42.com.
In 2024, more than 20 startups have received approvals from the RBI to establish their payments aggregator operations. Since December, the RBI has approved or granted in-principle approval to companies such as Zoho, Juspay, Decentro, CRED, PayU, Enkash, Pine Labs, Amazon Pay, Innoviti, Razorpay, CC Avenue, Cashfree, Tata Pay, Google Pay, Infibeam Avenues, and Mswipe.
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in San Francisco, Stripe has evolved from offering a single tool for developers to enable credit card payments to providing a comprehensive suite of fintech tools, including billing and tax solutions. In 2023, Stripe raised USD 6.5 billion at a USD 50 billion valuation from investors such as GIC, Goldman Sachs Asset and Wealth Management, and Temasek.
In April 2024, Stripe revealed its decision to unbundle its payments service from its broader suite of financial offerings. Stripe retained its position as the largest privately held firm in the industry but the rapidly evolving fintech landscape, coupled with increasing competition prompted Stripe to revise its strategy.
The decision to remove its payments service from its suite of financial offerings marks a departure from the company's previous approach, where access to other services was contingent upon using Stripe's payment solutions. Alongside this change, the company introduced several new Embedded Finance features and a new selection of AI tools.
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