Top Payments Startups in 2027

Stripe is a software platform for starting and running internet businesses. Millions of businesses rely on Stripe’s software tools to accept payments, expand globally, and manage their businesses online. Stripe has been at the forefront of expanding internet commerce, powering new business models, and supporting the latest platforms, from marketplaces to mobile commerce sites. We believe that growing the GDP of the internet is a problem rooted in code and design, not finance. Stripe is built for developers, makers, and creators. We work on solving the hard technical problems necessary to build global economic infrastructure—from designing highly reliable systems to developing advanced machine learning algorithms to prevent fraud.

Sardine helps fintech, crypto, and web3 companies "move money confidently" by developing fraud, compliance, and payment infrastructure. With Sardine, builders can focus on growing their business instead of spending time, fighting against fraudsters. We're growing incredibly fast and powering over 100 customers around the world like Brex, MoonPay, Bakkt, Luno, Transak, Chippercash, Candy Digital, Metamask, Brave, and RelayFi.

Affirm is reinventing credit to make it more honest, transparent, and friendly. Our mission is simple: deliver honest financial products to improve lives. Started by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, Affirm gives you the flexibility to buy now and make simple monthly payments for big purchases. Unlike traditional credit options, we show you exactly what you’ll owe up front: no penalty fees, no compounding interest. By letting you pay over time, Affirm is empowering consumers to advance their financial well-being.

Very Good Security offers a modern approach to data security and compliance. With VGS, companies can quickly and easily achieve compliances including PCI, SOC2, HIPAA and GDPR. VGS acts as a data custodian for sensitive and regulated data like payments, health info, personally identifiable information (PII), etc. Companies are able to securely collect and exchange data, without any of the liability or breach risk associated with holding the data themselves. With VGS "Zero Data" platform, you get all the utility of using sensitive data with none of the liability of needing to secure it yourself.

We're developing modern products, tools, and services designed for freelancers.

Our goal is to revolutionize the business economy by evolving how funding flows. Today, we combine cutting-edge machine learning and data science technologies with outstanding design and top-notch user support that earns rave reviews from our thousands of happy customers.

Stellar is an open network for sending and exchanging value of any kind. Our global network enables digitization of assets - from carbon credits to currencies - and enables movement around the internet with ease. In doing so, it’s faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than alternative platforms, and it empowers users and organizations to create a global, dependable network of trust while maintaining decentralization. The Stellar network is a peer-to-peer distributed global database, often referred to as blockchain technology. We have chosen to keep our code open-source in order to promote an inclusive software ecosystem that anyone can build upon and use.

We are solving a huge problem in financial services that has been lying unsolved for decades. All major payment systems (including wallets ) require two sided onboarding i.e. Payor and Payee need to onboard before they can transact. We have built a way to generate and transmit Digital Payments without onboarding the Payee/Recipient. This is huge in terms of bringing traditional paper and cash payments online. Add to that, we've figured out a clever way to monetize from both sides thereby changing the financial equation from Customers paying us to us paying our customers cash back from card fees! Our investors, whom we call our "believers," include Tim Draper, Adam Draper (Tim Draper's family), Naval Ravikabt through his AngelList Maiden Fund, co-founder of Intuit and more! Institutional investors include a top 4 bank and top 5 insurance company. Checkbook lets businesses move away from paper to deliver Digital Checks directly to a recipients email. This allows businesses to keep all their existing Accounts Payable (or Accounts Receivable processes) in place while moving to a completely online solution. All you need to send a check is the name and email of the recipient along with the amount you are sending. Recipients do not need to sign up for any service, download any app or pay any fees to receive payments. Digital Checks can be deposited and cashed online after instantly verifying banking credentials. No more paying high % based transaction fees on credit and debit cards or sharing sensitive bank account and routing numbers to payor.

TapTab is a TikTok-style interface from which diners can place orders and make reservations directly from videos.

Method has built the most modern way to connect to consumer financial accounts. Combining real-time liability connectivity with instant payment execution, Method’s API is designed to make it easy for people to connect their financial accounts to the apps and services they want to use. We have helped 45+ million users connect 350+ million liability accounts credential-less and processed over $2.5B in payments, helping users save millions in interest. One in every three credit cards in the United States is in the Method ecosystem and leading financial institutions like SoFi, Bilt, Cleo, Sezzle, Figure & Aven rely on our APIs to build magical experiences for millions of consumers. We’re a team of 50+ people spread across offices in Austin, SF, New York City, and Washington D.C! We’re excited to continue the momentum working alongside our investors and advisors from Andreessen Horowitz, Emergence Capital, Y Combinator, Avra, and Ardent. To learn more about us, check out our blog!