Crowdfunding site Kickstarter has ditched long-standing payments partner Amazon and signed up with Stripe in a move designed to make life easier for both project creators and backers.
Until now, people using Kickstarter to find funds had to set up an Amazon Payments business account, a process which takes several days. The Stripe deal means that users simply enter their bank account details when drafting their project, meaning that they are ready to accept payments within minutes.
Meanwhile, backers will no longer be redirected or have to log in to a separate service to make a payment. "It takes half the steps, and it all happens on Kickstarter," says a blog.
Kickstarter has already begun migrating projects over to the new system and expects to have everything moved by next week. Charges will not change, with Stripe applying credit card processing fees of between three and five per cent.
Kickstarter says that it decided to move after Amazon said it will discontinue the payments product that it used, adding: "Stripe processes payments for Twitter and Facebook, and we’ve gotten to know their team and product well. We’re thrilled to partner with them."
Last month Stripe raised $70 million in a funding round which values the San Francisco-based payments start-up at $3.5 billion. As well as the Twitter and Facebook deals, it has also recently signed up Chinese giant Alipay and been anointed a "highly recommended" partner for Apple Pay.