Stripe and Parse partner up to expand realm of mobile payments

Stripe and Parse are joining forces to move the world of mobile payments forward.

Today, the two startups announced a partnership that will allow thousands of developers to quickly and easily integrate payments into their mobile applications.

Stripe and Parse are both Y Combinator alums that provide developer-centric tools to move online businesses forward. Stripe’s technology makes it easier for developers to enable online credit card payments. The company is built on the idea that “transaction on the web is a problem rooted in code, not finance” and companies can use its API to integrate a full check out system within minutes. Parse is a mobile app development company that takes care of the nitty-gritty, technical, server-side of mobile development so its clients can focus on areas like user experience and design.

With this partnership, Parse will integrate Stripe with 60,000 of its Parse-powered applications.

“We thought it’d be cool if you could instantly connect your Stripe account to start accepting payments in a Parse mobile app,” wrote Stripe developer Alex MacCaw in a blog post. “If you’re building an app on Parse and want to accept payments, you don’t need to write any server-side code. Just create a Stripe token within your mobile app, and then pass the token to a Parse Cloud Code function to create a charge.”

Both companies have an impressive roster of clients. Along with the partnership, Stripe also announced that mobile-first startups like Lyft, Exec, SideCar, OrderAhead, Sesame, and Postmates enable payments using Stripe, and Parse works with major brands including Armani, Cisco, The Food Network, Toms, and Hipmunk. Both startups provide cross-platform solutions and are dedicating to creating a vibrant, reliable, and secure mobile ecosystem.

“Parse is all about making developers’ lives easier,” Parse CEO Ilya Sukhar wrote in an email. “We think the world of application development is far behind where it should be in terms of how easy it can be to create rich, engaging applications on mobile, desktop, and web. Accepting payments is a huge piece of functionality that’s typically painful, tedious, and complicated. Stripe has turned that upside down. The partnership came about from a longstanding friendship between the two companies. We’re both leading the charge in this new “developer-first” era of companies.”

These two companies are at the intersection of a few major trends happening in the tech world. Mobile, and specifically mobile commerce, is taking off, and the payments industry is being disrupted on all sides whether it is in terms of peer-to-peer payments, Bitcoins, or dongles. It is important for businesses of all sizes not only to have a mobile presence but also to try to  monetize on that presence in a way that provides meaningful returns.

This is one in a string of moves that Stripe has taken to focus on mobile. Stripe’s third announcement of the day was the release of updated versions of its iOS and Android libraries. Stripe and Parse are both based in San Francisco.

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