Stripe is expanding its offerings beyond payment processing by introducing a new tool that enables internet businesses to securely verify user identities across more than 30 countries.
The new tool, Stripe Identity, is designed to help online companies meet age requirements and comply with KYC regulations, as well as reduce fraud and prevent account takeovers. Built on the same infrastructure that underpins Stripe’s global onboarding compliance and risk management, this tool can be implemented quickly and requires no coding skills.
To verify their identity, users are required to take a photo of their government-issued ID alongside a live selfie, which Stripe’s machine learning algorithms then compare to the ID. Additionally, businesses can request users to provide more information if needed.
The data collected is encrypted and sent directly to Stripe, alleviating businesses from the burden of managing sensitive personal information on their own servers.
Delia Pawelke, head of global risk strategy and onboarding policy at Stripe, commented, “With Stripe Identity, we’re making our advanced compliance infrastructure available to all of our users. For an online business, verifying someone’s identity is now as easy as accepting a payment.”
This launch is part of Stripe’s broader strategy for diversification. Recently, the company has also introduced a tax compliance tool and a fraud detection tool, in addition to making new carbon removal purchases.
This approach appears to resonate well with investors, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Recently, investors including Sequoia, Shopify, and Silver Lake showed significant interest, bidding over $4 billion for stakes in the company, although only around $1 billion of that was filled. This suggests that shareholders anticipate the stock will continue to appreciate.
Stripe, which raised $600 million at a valuation of $95 billion in March, is considering an IPO later this year or early next year.