News of the Week: Stripe <> EBANX – Pix for Stripe merchants
I like this partnership. It unlocks real value for global merchants targeting Brazil. I also have questions.
What happened
Stripe and Ebanx announced a partnership to enable the Pix payment method in Brazil for Stripe merchants.
The bigger picture
Stripe says that their merchants can accept Pix from Brazilian customers with settlement in the merchant’s domestic currency. This is very useful if you are not set up locally in Brazil.
This is aimed at businesses expanding internationally and looking for growth in Latin America. Pix is a super-popular way to pay in Brazil.
Why this matters
In one of my previous roles, I did deep research on payment methods in Latin America and Brazil in particular. Boleto is still widely used, but Pix growth has been extraordinary and now leads the market.
EBANX is a merchant-of-record partner that helps companies accept local payment methods in Latin America and other regions without opening local entities.
A year ago, I already wrote that Zuora, one of the leading subscription platforms, enabled EBANX.
With the recent announcement, Stripe merchants get access to the most popular payment method in Brazil, and EBANX gets access to Stripe’s merchant base. Win-win.
What’s next
Stripe’s documentation highlights a few limitations to keep in mind:
Pix only. Even though EBANX can enable multiple local methods (including local card schemes), Stripe has enabled only Pix in this partnership. Merchants can still use the Forward API to process cards with EBANX.
No recurring payments (yet). Stripe is explicit that recurring flow isn’t supported right now.
Statement descriptor nuance. Stripe indicates EBANX appears as the recipient in customer bank statements for Pix.
I would love to see Stripe expand these partner-powered local methods beyond Pix (think local cards and other APMs in LATAM).