‘Shopify’ For Services Omnify Joins Stripe Partner Programme In India

Bengaluru and US-based SaaS company Omnify has joined Stripe Partner Programme as a Verified Partner.

Omnify is a technology company that builds booking and business management software for small businesses. It is also called as ‘Shopify for Services’. Launched in 2016, Omnify has now more than 5K businesses using their platform to sell and manage their services online in more than 50 countries.

Stripe, on the other hand, is a US-based technology company which allows individuals and businesses to receive payments over the Internet. With operations in more than 25 countries, Stripe helps new companies get started and grow their revenues, and established businesses accelerate into new markets and launch new business models.

“Stripe in itself is an ecosystem where a lot of startups can build their product on top of it. Omnify is one of the few Indian companies to join the program and be the official partners in its mission to get on board more digital audience,” as stated by Kabandi Saikia, Co-Founder & COO at Omnify in a recent interaction with Inc42.

What Is Stripe Partner Program?

On July 31, 2018, Stripe launched the Stripe Partner Programme worldwide to amplify and help grow its platform, plugin, and extension partners as well as work towards increasing the GDP of the internet.

“With only 3% of GDP online, the goal of the Stripe Partner Programme is to increase internet commerce by helping companies start, run, and scale their businesses,” mentioned Stripe in a media statement.

“Partners have integrated with Stripe for years—more than half of our fastest-growing users take advantage of one or more Stripe extensions,” added Claire Hughes Johnson, Stripe COO.

As Stripe is increasingly getting pulled up-market, its users have asked for an easier way to discover new partners and new applications.

“That’s why we’re excited Omnify is joining forces with us today to provide a better overall experience for the millions of businesses scaling on Stripe,” Clair added.

To be noted, Stripe payments are not active in India. In December 2017, Stripe started an invite-only beta for Stripe in India with a small group of companies.

As mentioned on its blog,

“With Stripe Atlas, we’ve already been able to help some Indian entrepreneurs build and scale global companies. However, we believe that by operating locally in India—with the ability for Indian companies to connect their local bank accounts to Stripe and get paid out in rupees—we can help support even more businesses and more types of business models (such as local marketplaces) in the years to come.”

How Will Stripe Partner Program Benefit Omnify?

While Omnify was already providing Stripe services as part of its business solutions for cross-border transactions, Stripe Partner Programme will further offer additional benefits to the company.

Stripe Verified Partners undertake a rigorous security and verification process, so that users can be confident in the quality of the partner’s integration with Stripe, as well as more easily find new partners.

Verified Partners receive enhanced benefits, including access to millions of Stripe users through a listing on the “Works with Stripe” gallery, exclusive invites to product betas, dedicated partner support, and more.

For instance, with Stripe’s flexible payments APIs, partners can build new product experiences quickly. Stripe also helps partners meet global compliance and regulatory obligations and continuously iterates to add the latest payment technologies.

“Omnify’s booking and business management software, combined with Stripe’s seamless payments platform, helps small businesses sell and manage their services online,” said Kabandi.

Indian Cross-Border Payments Scenario And Scope For Stripe Entry

India’s digital payments market is set to touch $1 Tn by 2023, as suggested by Principal Adviser to Niti Aayog Ratan P Watal at the launch of Niti Aayog report — ‘Digital Payments – Trends, Issues and Opportunities.

This is led by growth in mobile payments, presenting huge business opportunities for players in the digital space and has further opened gates for the payment platforms active in cross-border remittance space.

According to InstaRem CEO Prajit Nanu, the cross-border remittance market in India is around $6-7 Bn annually. Founded in 2014, InstaReM is licensed as a Money Services Business (MSB) in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia, India, Canada and the USA.

Paypal is another big player in this space which is rapidly gaining momentum in the country. In April 2018, PayPal announced plans to digitise the FIRC application process for easing the cross-border inward payments troubles for Indian sellers and freelancers.

Most recently, Paytm also announced its foray into forex services under its banking identity Paytm Payments Bank. Earlier in April 2018, it also announced its plans to enter into foreign exchange and cross-border remittance space.

Although Stripe is not active in India, it’s partner program is certainly an indication towards its intent to test waters in the country. Also, despite being present through its clients and partners. Stripe’s products are more preferable as compared to its counterparts in the industry.

As Kabandi said, “We have a lot of restrictions in terms of payment gateways in India especially recurring payments. Such payments are not possible at all if you use Indian payment gateways. Though we also use platforms like Instamojo and Paypal, services offered by Stripe are unmatched.”

With continuous support from businesses like Omnify, how soon stripe wil mark its official entry into the country, will be something to be watched for.