Fundraising site Kickstarter drops Amazon for payments

By Reuters

Jan 07, 2015 12:50 AM EST

Crowdsourced fundraising site Kickstarter has dropped Amazon.com Inc as its global payments processor in favor of Stripe, the fast-growing startup used by Twitter Inc, Facebook Inc and Apple Inc.

The switch comes as the Internet retailer begins to move clients from its customizable checkout service to an Amazon-branded one.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Kickstarter said it made the switch after Amazon decided to drop its Flexible Payments Service, which allows a company to develop its own checkout process. The new Amazon-branded Login and Pay service does not offer as much flexibility.

Amazon's payments division has processed more than $1 billion in Kickstarter pledges and had worked with the site even before its launch in 2009. An Amazon spokesman declined to comment.

Some analysts have said Amazon has been held back in payments because merchants are wary of handing over customer data to the company, which is rapidly expanding into new areas and competing with sellers.

In early December, Stripe raised $70 million from Sequoia Capital and other investors that valued the startup at $3.5 billion, double from a year earlier.

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