US technology company Stripe has announced it has made its third acquisition in March 2017 with Indie Hackers, a knowledge-sharing community for independent start-ups.
Reason for the acquisition
In an attempt to build and grow relationships with the ever expanding independent start-up scene, US digital payments company Stripe has recently acquired Indie Hackers for an undisclosed sum.
Patrick Collison, co-founder of Stripe said about the acquisition in March 2017: “Our goal in the acquisition of Indie Hackers is to ensure that the site becomes as successful as possible.”
With Stripe’s revenue upwards of $111 million and the current valuation of around $9 billion, the acquisition seems to be a move towards increasing its customer base.
About Indie Hackers and its Founders
You may not have heard of them, and that’s because Indie Hackers was only founded less than a year ago, in July 2016.
Courtland Allen, the founder, set out to create a space where both entrepreneurs and successful business owners could come together in a community for advice and inspiration.
Allen is quoted as saying, on the company’s website, that he is “impressed by Stripe’s aspiring mission of making it simpler for entrepreneurs to establish and grow their businesses.”
With business increasing and recently bringing in a reported $6,000 per month, Allen found his attention was being diverted away from producing content and increasingly towards filling ad inventory.
Why Buy A Knowledge Sharing Community Company?
So what was the interest for a digital payment company in acquiring a company like Indie Hackers?
Stripe, based in San Francisco, already has a significant percentage of new companies choosing their product. Their aim in the acquisition of Indie Hackers, they say, is not to increase that fraction but to increase the overall number of sales.
Stripe hopes that their new acquisition will “strengthen the relationship with the start-up community and further increase the GDP of the internet.”
Stripe’s Fortunes
Stripe has received more than $355 million in funding, with names such as Elon Musk and Sequoia Capital contributing to that fund. The company provides payment processing services for mobile and online payments. It supports credit card payments in more than 135 countries.
In March 2013, Stripe acquired Kickoff. RunKit was purchased in September 2016. Both were bought for a similar reason to Indie Hackers- to benefit Stripe’s customers.
The online payments firm understands that if it supports and nurtures smaller, knowledge- sharing communities, it will have a knock-on effect. It will ultimately filter through to Stripes own potential customers.
What’s In It For Everyone?
Courtland Allen now goes by the official title of ‘Indie Hacker at Stripe’.
Now that Stripe has relieved him of a financial burden, Allen can continue with his first intentions for the entrepreneurial community. Soon, the team plans on developing the Indie Hacker community and working on more original content for the website.
Stripe has an aim to make it easy for entrepreneurs to establish and nurture their businesses. And this is where Indie Hackers will turn up. In turn, Stripe will also benefit as more customers will sign up for their product.
No doubt, this acquisition has created a win/win situation for both companies.
Keywords/LSI
technology company, online payments company, digital payment company, internet payments, payment processing service, online payment service, online payments firm, credit card payments, online payment firm
References
https://www.indiehackers.com/blog/acquired-by-stripe
https://www.owler.com/iaApp/100441/stripe-company-profile
https://www.wsj.com/articles/stripes-valuation-nearly-doubles-to-9-2-billion-1480075201
http://www.cbronline.com/news/verticals/fintech/stripe-buys-indie-hackers-push-entrepreneurs/
