Payments processor Stripe now supports Alipay, connecting Western companies with Chinese consumers

Stripe, the fast-growing “fintech” startup that has emerged as the go-to payments platform for major companies such as Kickstarter, Lyft, and Shopify, has announced it now supports Alipay, China’s top epayment platform.

Part-owned by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Alipay works in a similar way to PayPal, insofar as users make payments with their card-linked Alipay account, rather than directly with their bank card. It’s thought to have around 300 million registered users — almost half of the entire Chinese epayments market — so this is a big scoop for Stripe.

The California-based company first announced the partnership in June last year, and it has been testing the integration as a beta product ever since. Now Checkout support for Alipay is open to all, which effectively means companies in the West will be better able to target the lucrative Chinese market. Any business that runs Stripe will now be able to accept payments made with Alipay through the Web or mobile apps.

Founded out of San Francisco in 2010, Stripe has raised around $200 million in funding to date, and the company has been placing increasing focus on enabling companies to address international markets. Back in March, Stripe relaunched Stripe Connect, a suite of tools aimed at helping on-demand platforms accept payments in 21 countries.

In related news, Stripe also revealed today that its checkout tool is now available to customers in seven more languages — Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.