Stripe Connect is a platform provided by the payment processing company Stripe that allows businesses to facilitate payments between multiple parties. It’s designed for platforms, marketplaces, and businesses that need to manage payments to multiple recipients, such as sellers, service providers, or contractors.
With Stripe Connect, businesses can create accounts for their users (referred to as “connected accounts”) and manage the flow of funds between these accounts. This enables platforms to take a commission or fee from transactions processed through their platform, while also ensuring that the appropriate funds are routed to the sellers or service providers.
Key features of Stripe Connect include:
Multi-party payments: Stripe Connect enables businesses to split payments between multiple parties in a single transaction. This is useful for platforms that need to distribute payments to sellers or service providers while retaining a portion for themselves.
Identity verification: Connect provides tools for verifying the identities of connected accounts to comply with regulatory requirements and reduce fraud.
Customizable payment flows: Businesses can customize the payment flow to suit their specific needs, including how funds are distributed, when payouts occur, and how disputes are handled.
Reporting and analytics: Connect offers reporting and analytics tools that provide insights into transaction volume, revenue, and other key metrics related to payments.
Payouts: Stripe Connect facilitates payouts to connected accounts, allowing businesses to send funds to sellers or service providers on a scheduled basis or manually initiate payouts as needed.
Overall, Stripe Connect simplifies the process of managing payments between multiple parties, making it easier for businesses to build and scale platforms and marketplaces.
Onboarding requirements for Stripe Connect in India
Custom Connect is currently only available for certain use-cases in India. Please reach out to our sales team if you are interested in this feature.
When onboarding Custom accounts to a Connect platform, you need to collect the required information for each account (which Stripe verifies). The information you need to collect depends on factors such as the capabilities you want to activate for the account and the country the account is based in.
To onboard Custom accounts in India, you need to submit the required information using the Accounts API.
If you’re onboarding Standard accounts, you don’t need to collect information as Stripe does that for you, however, you can review what information is being collected from your users on this page.
Verification requirements differ based on:
- The country connected accounts are created in.
- The capabilities connected accounts requested.
- The business type (e.g., individual, company) and structure (e.g. public corporation, private partnership).
For country = India, Business Type = Companies
Available Capabilities:
[✓] card_payments [✓] transfersAt least one capability must be selected. The transfers capability must be selected when the card_payments capability is selected.
Verification attempts can take minutes or, if it’s a manual review, hours to complete. If Stripe is unable to verify the information, the account is updated and a webhook is sent to your platform.
- Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) with the card payments capability
| REQUIRED BEFORE | PARAMETER | |
| Account information | ||
| Business type | First charge | Business_type = company |
| Business structure | First charge | company.structure = private_company or company.structure = limited_liability_partnership or company.structure = trust |
| Terms of service | First charge | tos_acceptance.date tos_acceptance.ip |
| External account | First charge | external_account |
| URL | First charge | business_profile.url |
| Product description | First charge | business_profile.product_description |
| Support phone number | First charge | business_profile.support_phone |
| Company | ||
| Company name | First charge | company.name |
| Company address | First charge | company.address.line1 company.address.line2 company.address.postal_code company.address.city company.address.state company.address.country |
| Company phone | First charge | company.phone |
| Company ID | First charge | company.registration_number Must be a valid Company Identification Number (CIN) or LLP ID issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs |
| Company tax ID | First charge | company.tax_id Must be a valid Permanent Account Number (PAN) issued by the Indian Income Tax department |
| Company relationship | First charge | company.owners_provided = true |
| Representative | ||
| Name | First charge | relationship.representative.first_name relationship.representative.last_name relationship.representative.title |
| Date of birth | First charge | relationship.representative.dob.day relationship.representative.dob.month relationship.representative.dob.year |
| Address | First charge | relationship.representative.address.line1 relationship.representative.address.line2 relationship.representative.address.postal_code relationship.representative.address.city relationship.representative.address.state relationship.representative.address.country |
| Phone | First charge | relationship.representative.phone |
| Tax Information | First charge | Relationship.representative.id_number Must be a valid Permanent Account Number (PAN) issued by the Indian Income Tax department |
| Owners | ||
| Name | First charge | relationship.owner.first_name relationship.owner.last_name relationship.owner.title |
| Date of birth | First charge | relationship.owner.dob.day relationship.owner.dob.month relationship.owner.dob.year |
| Address | First charge | relationship.owner.address.line1 relationship.owner.address.line2 relationship.owner.address.postal_code relationship.owner.address.city relationship.owner.address.state relationship.owner.address.country |
| Phone | First charge | relationship.owner.phone |
| Percent ownership | First charge | relationship.owner.percent_ownership |
| Tax Information | First charge | relationship.owner.id_number Must be a valid Permanent Account Number (PAN) issued by the Indian Income Tax department |
- Sole proprietorships with the card payments capability
| REQUIRED BEFORE | PARAMETER | |
| Account information | ||
| Business type | First charge | Business_type = company |
| Business structure | First charge | company.structure = sole_proprietorship |
| Terms of service | First charge | tos_acceptance.date tos_acceptance.ip |
| External account | First charge | external_account |
| URL | First charge | business_profile.url |
| Product description | First charge | business_profile.product_description |
| Support phone number | First charge | business_profile.support_phone |
| Company | ||
| Company name | First charge | company.name |
| Company address | First charge | company.address.line1 company.address.line2 company.address.postal_code company.address.city company.address.state company.address.country |
| Company phone | First charge | company.phone |
| Company GST ID | First charge | company.vat_id Optional: GST Identification Number can be used to verify the identity of your business. Additionally, GST can be used for e-invoicing purposes. |
| Representative | ||
| Name | First charge | relationship.representative.first_name relationship.representative.last_name relationship.representative.title |
| Date of birth | First charge | relationship.representative.dob.day relationship.representative.dob.month relationship.representative.dob.year |
| Address | First charge | relationship.representative.address.line1 relationship.representative.address.line2 relationship.representative.address.postal_code relationship.representative.address.city relationship.representative.address.state relationship.representative.address.country |
| Phone | First charge | relationship.representative.phone |
| Tax Information | First charge | relationship.representative.id_number Must be a valid Permanent Account Number (PAN) issued by the Indian Income Tax department |
- Individuals with the card payments capability
| REQUIRED BEFORE | PARAMETER | |
| Account information | ||
| Business type | First charge | Business_type = individual |
| Terms of service | First charge | tos_acceptance.date tos_acceptance.ip |
| External account | First charge | external_account |
| URL | First charge | business_profile.url |
| Product description | First charge | business_profile.product_description |
| Support phone number | First charge | business_profile.support_phone |
| Individual | ||
| Name | First charge | relationship.representative.first_name relationship.representative.last_name relationship.representative.title |
| Date of birth | First charge | relationship.representative.dob.day relationship.representative.dob.month relationship.representative.dob.year |
| Address | First charge | relationship.representative.address.line1 relationship.representative.address.line2 relationship.representative.address.postal_code relationship.representative.address.city relationship.representative.address.state relationship.representative.address.country |
| Phone | First charge | relationship.representative.phone |
| Tax Information | First charge | relationship.representative.id_number Must be a valid Permanent Account Number (PAN) issued by the Indian Income Tax department |
If Stripe is unable to verify the company, its representatives or beneficial owners, you need to provide a scan of an ID document. This can be collected with the verification.document.front and verification.document.back arguments.
Acceptable ID Type in India
Acceptable ID documents vary by country. There are some forms of identification that require scans of both the front and back of the ID. For these, use the document_back parameter to provide the back of the document. Unless explicitly noted, only a scan of the front of the ID is required. Beyond a certain threshold, this will lead to payouts being paused until we receive a soft copy of the necessary documents. During this time, be assured that there will be no disruption in your ability to collect payments.
If user country is based in India, acceptable forms of identification are:
- For individuals
- Passport — a scan of the photo page
- Driver license — scans of front and back are required
- Income tax PAN card — a scan of the side with the person’s details
- For companies and LLPs
- Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) registration certificate
- Goods and Services Tax (GST) registration certificate
Identity verification for Custom account in India
To complement our identity verification for custom account doc, below describes the business structures you can classify a company with in India. If you or your users think the entity type should be a company but are unsure, the information might be in the business formation documents or tax documents for that entity.
| BUSINESS STRUCTURE | DESCRIPTION |
| private_company | A business incorporated under the Companies Act 2013 that limits owner liability to their shareholdings, the number of shareholders to 200, and restricts shareholders from publicly trading shares. |
| limited_liability_partnership | A business registered under the Limited liability Partnership Act 2008 with a minimum of two partners, a minimum of two designated partners who are individuals, and at least one of them resident in India. |
Reference: https://support.stripe.com/questions/onboarding-requirements-for-stripe-connect-in-india
