Ford Motor Company has signed a five-year deal with Stripe, an online payment processor. This deal will help Ford increase its presence in e-commerce as well as help the startup expand its markets in North America and Europe. The companies announced the deal in a statement on Monday, according to a report in CNBC.

Transactions for consumer vehicle orders, reservations and bundled financing options will be handled by Stripe. The company’s website will also be used to route a customer’s payments from its website to the correct dealer to Ford or Lincoln. Stripe has been selling simple software that makes its easy for businesses, no matter the size, to accept online payments through the internet. The technology from Stripe is expected to be rolled out by Ford in North America, in the second half of this year.

In a statement, Marion Harris, the CEO of Ford Motor Company said that the giant automaker was making strategic decisions about where they would bring in providers who had “robust expertise” and where they would build the “differentiated, always-on experiences” to add value for their customers.

Ford’s market capitalization crossed $100 billion, last week. Investors are excited about its electric vehicle strategy as well the restructuring plan for Ford+. In 2021, the automaker became the best performing auto stock, above rival automakers Tesla and GM.

Mike Clayville, Stripe’s chief revenue officer said that people got comfortable paying online for a plethora of services including groceries, healthcare and home haircuts during the pandemic and were now expecting to buy “anything and everything online.”

Stripe is a privately held company founded by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison. It has a $95 billion valuation and was reported to go public, last year. However, months ago, Stripe’s president told CNBC that the company was “very happy” not going public. It already has a growing list of customers including Shopify, Salesforce and Deliveroo and has now added Ford Motor Company to its list.

Image