Stripe opens new Toronto office with plans to hire 50 team members

American-Irish payments company Stripe is growing its Toronto presence with the opening of a new office in the city.

The space, which opened Sept. 26, is located at 1 University Avenue in the city’s downtown core. It opened almost exactly three years after Stripe first established a physical presence in Toronto.

The expansion reflects Toronto’s status as the fourth-largest tech talent market in North America, Stripe stated in a release. The new office will house roles in engineering, product management, sales, design, and more. According to a LinkedIn post written by Matthew Burlak, Stripe’s head of Canada go-to-market, the company is currently hiring 50 team members for the new office.

“The quality of talent is undeniable and the tenacity of entrepreneurs is energizing.”

“After more than a decade in Canada, we’re proud to support many of the country’s most successful startups and enterprises, with thousands more Canadian companies getting started with Stripe every day,” Burlak said in a statement. “We’re looking forward to growing our team and accelerating the success of even more Canadian businesses.”

Stripe, which is dual-headquartered in San Francisco and Dublin, offers infrastructure that allows businesses to accept online payments, manage revenue, and handle transactions. It also offers tools for billing, fraud prevention, and global financial infrastructure. 

The company’s payment infrastructure is used by a number of Canadian tech companies, including Shopify, Lightspeed, FreshBooks, Thinkific, and SkipTheDishes.

Stripe opened its first Toronto office in 2021, marking its first physical presence in Canada despite operating in the country since 2012. Jim Lambe was appointed as the company’s first general manager in Canada. He held the role until April 2023 before transitioning to vice president and general manager at NetApp Canada. In August 2023, Burlak took over as the new country head.

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The firm claims that Canadian companies grew their payment volume on Stripe by more than 50 percent between 2021 and 2023. In a post on X in May, Stripe CTO David Singleton said Canada is the company’s third-largest market.

“It’s an interesting moment for tech in Canada, but there are two things I know are true here: the quality of talent is undeniable and the tenacity of entrepreneurs is energizing,” Singleton said at the time.

Stripe has launched several new products in the Canadian market in the last year, including cross-border selling on Stripe Payments, contactless in-person payments, and usage-based billing. 

Not all Canadian tech companies share the same enthusiasm for Stripe. In 2023, Calgary-based fintech startup Helcim said it faced major delays in developing its point-of-sale device after Stripe acquired its manufacturing partner. Despite being a much smaller player, Helcim, which offers a built-from-scratch payment stack, views itself as a competitor to Stripe.

Earlier this year, Stripe revealed it surpassed $1 trillion in payment volume for 2023. Recent performance disclosures have fuelled speculation that the company is preparing to go public.

Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Alex Shutin.