Stripe Inc. launched corporate credit cards available in a beta program to U.S.-based companies.
The announcement comes less than a week after the San Francisco-based startup announced it would start to make loans to small businesses in the U.S. The Stripe Corporate Card allows U.S. businesses that have an account with Stripe to make payouts to recipients in 45 countries in local currencies and over local bank networks. Small-business cards have long been dominated by traditional credit card giants such as American Express Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., but companies such as Silicon Valley startup Brex Inc. have started to gain prominence.
Brex was valued at $2.6 billion after closing its latest funding round in June, just one year after the company launched its first product. The startup offers corporate credit cards to young companies and is looking to launch new ventures in cards for e-commerce and life science companies.
Stripe has raised more than $800 million and boasts a $22.5 billion post-money valuation, easily the most highly valued U.S. fintech company. Its Visa Inc.-branded credit card will offer no associated fees, built-in spending controls, and real-time expense reporting, among other features. Stripe is offering 2% cashback on the business's top two spending categories, which are automatically calculated each month, and 1% cashback on everything else, according to the company website.
This move is not Stripe's first foray into credit cards, but it is the company's biggest leap so far. In July 2018, Stripe unveiled a product that allowed online businesses and platforms to create their own credit and debit cards, allowing businesses to make payments and control expenses.
Stripe also announced other product developments at its user conference. The company launched instant payouts for businesses, made the terminal product for processing in-person payments available in Canada and expanded into Central and Eastern Europe. Stripe highlighted the region's entrepreneurial and technological talent, saying that more of the area's companies could be expanding globally. On Sept. 9, Stripe launched its services in Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Slovenia.
