Progress at $50 billion fintech Stripe has been slowing this yr, however certainly one of its key methods to reverse that course bought a good push right now: Stripe is asserting that it has inked a “strategic funds partnership” with Uber. The pair will work collectively initially on chosen companies in eight of Uber’s largest markets, together with the U.S., the U.Okay., Canada, Mexico, Australia and Japan.

Some context on this deal: Uber’s huge U.S. rival Lyft has been a longtime marquee buyer of Stripe’s for funds, and whether or not or not it was true, that was one purpose some assumed Uber and Stripe wouldn’t work collectively. Uber is, nonetheless, a a lot greater beast, at near $100 billion transacted yearly (Stripe processed $817 billion final yr). And Uber is not only a drive globally however within the U.S. particularly, the place one estimate from YipIt (by way of WSJ) places Uber’s rideshare market share at present at a whopping 74%.

Lyft will stay a buyer of Stripe’s, Stripe president Will Gaybrick confirmed to TechCrunch.

Monetary phrases of the deal usually are not being disclosed, however as with the remainder of Stripe’s funds enterprise, a giant element will come from commissions that Stripe will make from every transaction that it powers on Uber’s platform.

The Uber partnership, anticipated to be introduced formally later right now at Stripe’s person convention, comes on the heels of current enterprise offers Stripe has inked with Amazon, Microsoft and BMW.

Stripe began as a easy API to combine card funds into websites and apps (the “stripe” of its title a reference to the magnetic strip on the again of these playing cards), however over time, because it’s regarded for greater margins and extra diversification, it’s added dozens of different merchandise and options, together with companies to assist calculate and account for gross sales tax, assist triage fraud makes an attempt, incorporate companies and extra.

However this partnership — for now not less than — will not be a world adoption of all that Stripe has to supply. Uber might be utilizing Stripe to interrupt into a particular, new funds frontier. Particularly, it’s going to combine Stripe Monetary Connections and Hyperlink to let customers import banking particulars to pay for companies like Uber Rides and Eats straight from financial institution accounts, giving customers a funds different to credit score or debit playing cards.

“Creating funds experiences that mix funds innovation, lowered friction, and price financial savings is on the core of what we do. Utilizing Hyperlink to present clients the choice to simply pay with their financial institution accounts places us able to tick all these bins whereas offering entry to an more and more widespread mode of cost,” mentioned Karl Hébert, vp of funds, threat, and identification at Uber, in a press release. “Stripe shares our dedication to reliability, buyer centricity, and continued innovation—which is why they’re a key companion.”

Stripe’s flagship product powering card funds, in the meantime, is for now solely being rolled out in two of these markets: Australia (by way of eftpos) and Japan (by way of JCB).

In different phrases, though Stripe has constructed out some attention-grabbing merchandise — together with market companies like instantaneous payout service it developed early with Lyft to pay drivers extra rapidly — these is not going to be part of the combination for now.

All the identical, it’s a big step for Stripe. The corporate had been engaged on an Uber deal for years, with trials during the last three. This opens the door to the 2 working collectively extra.

Gaybrick mentioned a part of not working collectively extra considerably beforehand was a matter of a scaling situation: Stripe has extra giant clients now, however its begin was actually with different fast-growing (however smaller) startups. “Stripe was not round when Uber was based,” Gaybrick defined. “Once we first began talking a number of years in the past they have been excited for the benefit of use and reliability, however we had a methods to go to persuade them that we have been highly effective sufficient and performant in the marketplace. Now that’s how they see us.”

For Uber, the deal is notable in that it underscores some shifts on the firm.

Earlier this yr, Uber introduced a seven-year cloud companies deal with Oracle and Google to host its IT infrastructure, and shortly after that it launched a redesigned, simplified app that focuses on extra personalised experiences for customers.

Taken collectively, the 2 sign how Uber — underneath the identical price and financial constraints as the remainder of the market — is in search of higher methods of focusing on engineering sources on product and away from among the features that may be handed off to 3rd events to handle.

Uber has been recognized for constructing and managing plenty of its funds infrastructure itself, and whereas it’s going to proceed with that, it’s additionally utilizing a multi-vendor technique to handle among the work on the first and final mile of that course of. That’s the chance for Stripe and others prefer it.

It stays to be seen how far that chance extends. Notably, Uber’s efforts in “tremendous app” territory have most just lately been about increasing transport choices. Even Uber Eats is a separate app. That’s in distinction to a few of its regional counterparts like Seize and GoJek, which supply not simply mobility, however deliveries, on-line procuring, leisure, monetary companies and extra.

Will Uber ever need to do extra? Might it? If Uber’s hopeful reply to both of these is “sure”, then you could possibly see why it’d need to deliver in additional funds specialists as companions to construct and scale that.