Hot payments startup Stripe has made its first acquisition today — Kickoff, a chat and task-management app for teams. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In 2011, Stripe launched its developer-friendly online payments system that allows developers to avoid setting up merchant accounts and dealings with banks, while still ensuring transaction safety. The service has been a hit with developers because of its simplicity. The company not only competes with PayPal, but also Braintree. It is backed by General Catalyst, Sequoia, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Elon Musk.
Kickoff’s Mac app allowed for real-time team collaboration both online and offline. Users could create lists, share files, message each other and more. We’re told that the founders will be maintaining the application despite joining Stripe. One of the founders, Benjamin De Cock, was actually freelancing for Stripe previously as a designer.
Clearly Stripe is looking to boost its design team, so could be more of an acquihire. This is the first acquisition for the startup, which has raised $38 million to date. The company also recently launched its payments product in the UK.