Payments giant Stripe has announced the acquisition of Lemon Squeezy, a four-year-old competitor, as revealed by Lemon Squeezy on Friday.
Lemon Squeezy, a merchant of record, is responsible for calculating and paying global sales taxes for digital products, managing legal processing, and handling fees in every country. The company mainly caters to SaaS and software businesses.
In a post on X, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison welcomed the acquisition, stating, “Welcome Lemon Squeezy! We’re going to scale merchant of record selling in a big way.” Chief Product Officer Will Gaybrick also expressed his enthusiasm on X, mentioning, “When asked ‘what should Stripe ship next?’ many of you said merchant of record. The Lemon Squeezy team has built an excellent MoR product, and we’re excited to work together to help more of you launch and grow!”
Lemon Squeezy co-founder and CEO J.R. Farr shared in a blog post that his 13-person company, which publicly launched in 2021, had received numerous acquisition offers and Series A term sheets from investors. Farr highlighted that they had turned down a $50 million Series A term sheet during one podcast interview. However, the specific amount of venture funding raised by the startup remains unclear.
Farr remarked, “Despite the allure of these opportunities, we knew that what we had built was truly special and needed the right partner to take it to the next level. We’re proud to say that we’ve found that partner in Stripe and have gone from idea to acquisition in under three years.”
While Farr did not disclose current revenue figures, he noted that Lemon Squeezy surpassed $1 million in annual recurring revenue just nine months after its public launch in 2021. He also mentioned that Lemon Squeezy has been processing payments through Stripe since its inception. The terms of the deal are not disclosed yet.