In a significant move within the payments industry, Stripe has officially acquired Lemon Squeezy, a four-year-old competitor, as confirmed by Lemon Squeezy on Friday.
The financial details of the acquisition remain under wraps.
Describing itself as a “merchant of record,” Lemon Squeezy manages the calculation and remittance of global sales taxes for digital products, along with handling the necessary legalities and fees globally. Its primary clientele includes SaaS and software enterprises.
Patrick Collison, Stripe’s CEO, expressed his enthusiasm about the acquisition on X, stating, “Welcome @lmsqueezy! We’re excited to significantly expand our merchant of record offerings.” And Will Gaybrick, Chief Product Officer at Stripe, also celebrated the acquisition on X, saying, “You’ve frequently asked us ‘what should Stripe launch next?’ The answer for many was merchant of record. The Lemon Squeezy crew has crafted a standout MoR product, and we are thrilled to collaborate with them to help more businesses scale and flourish!”
In a blog post, JR Farr, co-founder and CEO of Lemon Squeezy, revealed that since the company’s public unveiling in 2021, it attracted numerous acquisition propositions and (Series A) investment offers. Farr specifically mentioned rejecting a $50 million Series A offer in a podcast. (The startup’s exact venture funding status is not specified.)
He further disclosed: “Despite the tempting nature of these offers, we recognized the uniqueness of our creation and the importance of partnering with the right entity to elevate our business. We’re delighted to report that with Stripe, we’ve found an ideal partner, achieving the leap from conception to acquisition in less than three years.”
Farr chose not to divulge current revenue figures but did mention that within nine months of launching publicly in 2021, Lemon Squeezy’s annual recurring revenue exceeded $1 million.
Additionally, Farr mentioned that from the onset, Lemon Squeezy has been utilizing Stripe for payment processing.
This acquisition marks another strategic move for Stripe this year, following the March “acqui-hire” of a four-member team from Supaglue, for which the payment was not disclosed. Supaglue, initially known as Supergrain, had secured a $6.8 million seed investment in November 2021, with Benchmark general partner Chetan Puttagunta leading the round. (TechCrunch did not receive a comment from Puttagunta when requested.)
Supaglue was recognized as an open source developer platform geared towards user-centric integrations.
Additionally, last summer, Stripe acquired Okay, a small startup focusing on low-code analytics tools designed to aid engineering leaders in gauging their team’s performance. Okay, which counted just seven employees, had amassed $6.6 million in funding from notable investors like Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins, following its participation in Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 batch.
Compiled by Techarena.au.
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