payments major Stripe has moved to an ‘invite only’ mode in India, meaning merchants will not be able to join the payment aggregator by themselves. They will need to request for an invite from Stripe’s India team and wait for approval.
In a post published on its website, Stripe said it will only be able to support more Indian merchants by the second half of 2025. The company did not provide any explanation for the same.
Industry insiders aware of the development said this could technically mean that Stripe is withdrawing from the domestic payments market and shifting focus to the cross-border payments opportunity.
“This means that businesses from India will not be able to sign up for a new Stripe account through our website, and will instead need to request an invite. We will only be able to support a select number of businesses, with a focus on international expansion, for the time being,” the Y Combinator-backed startup said in a statement on its website.
Stripe referred to the strict KYC requirements in India as one of the reasons behind this decision. The company said it wants to allow merchants to launch quickly and onboard onto Stripe almost instantly, something that they cannot offer in India currently.
“The regulatory