#493
Thinking Outside The Payments Box
Published:
Jun 19, 2023
Author:
Sarah Parsons Wolter
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Stripe’s headlines this week have been better-than-ok with its Okay transaction, marking its first acquisition since January 2022. Okay is a startup specializing in low-code analytics software that identifies bottlenecks affecting engineering teams (primarily around code), which Stripe snatched up to boost their engineering prowess.
What is behind Okay’s “low-code” allure, you may ask? According to SAP, low-code and no-code (LCNC) are methods of designing and developing apps using intuitive drag and drop tools that reduce or eliminate the need for traditional developers who write code.
While Okay used to serve Stripe's rival, Plaid, this deal ensures Stripe engineers will get the low code analytics software all to themselves. Stripe may have more than enough engineering chops to go around, but LCNC solutions are an interesting value prop across the board, allowing Stripe to better position themselves to attract and retain talented engineers.
Low-code / no-code solutions have taken off as a low cost way to build, test and deploy payments and other technologies with little to no hassle. Companies can roll out various services, from payments acceptance to creating and hosting the entire customer experience. The market for LCNC has grown dramatically over the past few years, from $3.5b in 2019 to $8b in 2022.
Stripe's recent move has everyone taking notes in leveling up their management game, and the broader low-code / no-code phenom could bring some funky twists to a dev team’s “bring your pet to work day”.
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Thinking Outside the Payments Box
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