Challenge

When buy now, pay later (BNPL) solutions were taking off in the US and northern Europe, the founders of Barcelona-based SeQura saw an opportunity to develop a new point-of-sale financing option tailored specifically for customers in southern Europe. Unlike more mature markets, southern Europe lacked established credit bureaus that allowed for reliable credit checks via API. So in 2013, SeQura launched a new BNPL method powered by a custom credit decision algorithm.

By offering flexible instalment options, higher approval rates, and the fastest checkout experience in Spain, SeQura’s BNPL began taking off with businesses and consumers – which led to some growing pains. SeQura was working with several local payment processors and financing partners as the company expanded to countries outside of Spain, and the complexity of its payment processing infrastructure was causing conversion and authorisation rates to decline.

So in 2024, the company began looking for a new payment partner that could support that expansion and help it accommodate different regulatory requirements and partnership models in multiple markets. That new partner would also need advanced payment processing features to ensure the success of initial transactions, as well as subsequent instalment payments.

“As a buy now, pay later solution, payments are key. The minute we can’t process payments, we’re out of business,” said Joaquim Ferrer, SeQura’s chief commercial officer.

Beyond advanced payment capabilities, SeQura was also looking for a strategic partner that offered the resources to support the company’s new product initiatives and opportunities to extend the reach of its payment method to even more businesses and consumers.

Solution

In 2024, SeQura entered into a strategic partnership with Stripe and worked with Stripe professional services to incorporate Stripe technology into its BNPL solution and other new products, while also supporting SeQura’s expansion to additional customers.

Integrating Stripe Connect into its BNPL infrastructure allowed SeQura to create account structures that met the regulatory requirements and partnership models in each market. For example, in some markets, SeQura works with local financing partners to manage instalment payments, and Connect’s flexibility allowed the SeQura team to ensure that funds were routed to the appropriate partners as needed. “We have quite a complicated setup, and Connect’s capabilities are not something that’s available out-of-the-box, or even available at all, with other acquirers,” said Mike Komor, VP of payments and partnerships at SeQura.

Connect’s integration with Stripe Payments also gave SeQura access to Stripe features that help maximise payment success for both initial transactions and subsequent instalment payments. Payments supports 3D Secure authentication for transactions from first-time SeQura users that require additional verification in the SeQura checkout process. For instalment payments, SeQura enabled Stripe authorisation optimisations such as card account updater and Adaptive Acceptance, which uses AI to optimise retry messaging and routing combinations for recovering false declines.

Connect also supported SeQura’s product expansion through the creation of stand-alone platforms for industry verticals. With one Connect integration, SeQura was able to embed Stripe payment processing capabilities into two recently launched businesses: eduQa for education and training courses and optiQa for opticians. These platforms allow students to pay for their courses in instalments, or purchase glasses or contact lenses through instalment payments.

Stripe professional services guided SeQura’s Connect integration from planning and integration through testing, ensuring proper platform setup, particularly for financiers, and confirming payment methods for financier-connected accounts. The team provided SeQura with several training workshops to prepare the company to integrate and manage the platform post-launch. The partnership was instrumental to the integration, as Stripe professional services provided necessary troubleshooting and expertise to keep SeQura’s team momentum unblocked toward launch.

While integrating Connect in 2024, SeQura also expanded the distribution of its BNPL by offering it on Stripe.

Results

Connect supports SeQura payments in four countries

The ease of configuring Connect to accommodate different local regulations and partner ecosystems allowed SeQura to begin processing BNPL payments through Stripe in Spain, Italy, France, and Portugal in 2024. In 2025, the company plans to add Stripe as a payment processor in Germany, the UK, and the US.

Stripe improves overall acceptance rates

Since adding Stripe to its mix of payment processors, SeQura has reversed its decline in authorisation rates. The success rate for transactions on Stripe was among the strongest SeQura saw from its different payment partners.

“We monitor these figures weekly and monthly, and the comparisons constantly reinforce the fact that Stripe’s authorisation rates are market-leading, especially internationally in Europe,” said Jack Mayor, SeQura’s head of strategic partnerships.

Support for additional payment methods opens up new options for instalment payments

Although SeQura currently relies on credit cards as the company’s main payment method, the company is exploring new procedures to process instalment payments if the card on file is declined for insufficient funds or other reasons. In those cases, SeQura may allow customers to use a local payment method, which it could turn on through its Stripe integration with no additional coding.

Connect saves development resources in the expansion of vertical platforms

Connect’s flexibility made it easy to extend Stripe technology to SeQura’s existing vertical platforms and any future platforms it may develop.

“The way Stripe Connect is built saves us a lot of development resources,” said Ferrer. “We can tap into one integration and quickly embed our payment processing capabilities in other platforms.”

Distribution through Stripe contributes to 55% revenue growth

The additional reach for SeQura’s BNPL through Stripe, combined with the company’s ongoing expansion into new geographic markets and industry verticals, helped drive 55% YoY revenue growth in 2024.

The company anticipates continued revenue growth in the future as more Stripe merchants add SeQura to their payment method mix. “The process for merchants to install SeQura on Stripe is seamless,” said Mayor. “They simply log in to their Stripe account, go to payment methods, search SeQura, and toggle us on.”