Dive Brief:

• Online payments enabler Stripe has unveiled a directory of about 300 different applications that can be integrated with its platform to support a variety of business services and functions, TechCrunch reports.
• The directory includes categories such as Start with Stripe (focused on apps helpful to a business just starting an online store) and Extend with Stripe, which helps users add new apps to augment existing capabilities.
• Some the Stripe-friendly apps listed include Slack, which can provide real-time notifications of transactions; Card Flight card readers to integrate with a merchant's iOS or Android apps; Xero, which links Stripe transactions with a merchant's accounting and payroll accounts; Taxjar for tax calculations; e-commerce platform Big Cartel; and many others.

Dive Insight:

In a crowded payments market, Stripe is doing what it can to get noticed. It has not gotten nearly as much attention as payment giants including Apple and PayPal, so promoting its large ecosystem of apps that work with its platform should help show prospective merchant customers that they are getting more than a payments solution when they go with Stripe.

By providing a long list of apps pre-integrated into the Stripe platform, the company also is building value around its technology. Even though Stripe doesn't sell all of the applications itself, it's delivering the promise that merchants deploying Stripe can gain access to a wide variety of apps and solutions that can help their businesses. That is something the company needs to do to build its profile in the payments market, but also to satisfy investors like Visa and American Express that helped Stripe to $100 million in new funding last year and a reported valuation of about $5 billion.

This is not the first move Stripe has made to add value around its core payments proposition. The company recently announced a fraud monitoring tool called Radar that uses artificial intelligence capabilities as it aims to block fraudulent transactions.

It's not clear if Stripe can go toe-to-toe with the Apples, Androids and PayPals of the world, but its capabilities and its increasingly visible ecosystem could make it a nice acquisition target for one of the major payment card companies or another large player with the brand and resources to go up against the payments giants.