Stripe's planned relaunch in India has been put on hold indefinitely due to increasingly strict regulatory and compliance requirements. The Irish-American financial services firm had initially aimed to resume full operations in India by mid-2025.
The company had received in-principle approval for a payment aggregator license in 2022, followed by final authorization to facilitate domestic transactions in January 2024. However, in the same year, Stripe switched to an invite-only model, requiring Indian merchants to join a waitlist. This decision followed the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) proposal of stricter know-your-customer (KYC) norms.
Sources familiar with the matter indicate that the stricter licensing and compliance requirements are the primary reason for the indefinite postponement. Stripe has expressed its commitment to providing the same seamless experience in India that it offers to users worldwide, but acknowledges that the evolving regulatory landscape makes this challenging. A fundamental feature of Stripe is enabling new users to launch quickly with easy onboarding, which the company says it cannot currently guarantee in India.
In May 2024, Stripe announced that its services in India would be invite-only. This meant that new businesses in India could no longer sign up for Stripe directly through the website and instead needed to request an invitation. The company stated it would only support a select number of businesses, focusing on those with international expansion plans.
Stripe's initial move to an invite-only model was interpreted by some industry insiders as a potential withdrawal from the domestic payments market, with a shift in focus towards cross-border payment opportunities. Stripe allows for domestic and international transactions only for businesses that are registered as a Company, LLP, or Sole Proprietorship in India. If you are an individual, you can only receive transactions within India but not from abroad.
While Stripe possesses strong technology, it lacks popular Indian payment options that many local Indian payment gateways provide. This includes options like netbanking, wallets, and UPI, although Stripe does accept international payments.
The company's commitment to India remains strong, and it was working to build an infrastructure to support more users by the second half of 2025. However, the recent decision to put the relaunch on hold indefinitely suggests that the challenges posed by the regulatory environment are proving more significant than initially anticipated.