Stripe, an online payments service provider company, has acquired India based Recko firm, operating in the same domain. The acquisition move by Stripe comes as a step ahead to rooting its foot deep down into the Indian market.
What Does Recko Do?
Recko is a payment reconciliation, or in simpler words, a payment comparison firm based in Banglore, India. The firm, founded in 2017, provides payment reconciliation solutions to online businesses through its software.
To be a little aware of what exactly payment reconciliation is, let’s understand the concept in short. Payment reconciliation is a method of matching two or more data records. For example, matching your bank statements against your transactions that include payments made and accepted during a selected period. The main objective of the payment reconciliation process is to make sure that two or more sets match each other when compared.
Stripe commenced its operations in India in 2017. Still, it could not penetrate the Indian market satisfactorily, which is already overcrowded with several dominant payments processing service providers such as PayU Money, Pine Labs, Razorpay, and PayTM.
The acquisition of Recko will enable Stripe to offer more services to the Indian business owners than its basic payment processing service. As of now, Stripe offers Revenue Recognition and billing services in India. Stripe, founded in 2009, has a behemoth market value of $95 billion and revenues touching the mark of $740 crores as per 2020 reports.
On the other hand, the payment reconciliation firm has raised $7 million in funding from investors, including Prime Venture Partners and Vertex Ventures. Recko’s investor’s list also includes well-known entrepreneurs such as Taavet Hinirikus.
Will Gaybrick, Chief Product Officer at Stripe, in the context of Recko’s acquisition, says that Stripe assists millions of businesses of the globe in making their revenue management a smooth process – from subscriptions, invoicing, and revenue recognition. Will Gaybrick further says that Stripe will automate Recko’s payment reconciliation process. The existing team of Recko will join Stripe’s remote engineering hub to help Stripe’s products reach around the world.
Stripe will shortly commence integration of Recko in its architecture, but the process will not affect the existing userbase of Recko in any way. Additionally, Stripe seems in no mood to curtail any of the existing features of the platform. Stripe is also extensively looking forward to offering employment opportunities to the residents of India.
Coupling with Stripe seems a precise move for startup’s future. We are eager to scale up the GDP of internet businesses by wiping out the limitation of payment reconciliation complicatedness. Internet ventures require the latest financial tools that can boost their revenues and automate the burdens necessary to frame the exact status of their financial capability. Says Saurya Sinha, the cofounder of Recko.
Saurya Sinha, along with Prashant Borde, both IIT students, established Recko in 2017. A few of India’s leading online shopping platforms, such as Meesho, Deliveroo, and PharmEasy rely on Recko’s payment reconciliation technology.
The acquisition of the payment reconciliation firm marks Stripe’s first investment in other businesses in India. Stripe has also acquired Bouncer and TaxJar at the beginning of 2021.