Challenge

ablefy makes entrepreneurship accessible for experts who want to share knowledge online. Founded in Berlin in 2015, the company grew steadily across its core markets of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and by 2020 the platform was home to 25,000 digital entrepreneurs and preparing to expand beyond German-speaking regions.

But scaling into new markets presented a challenge. ablefy’s original payment provider required a burdensome, time-consuming onboarding process for new merchants. After the ablefy team collected and reviewed documents such as IDs and shareholder agreements in accordance with Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, its payment partner would review them again manually, sometimes flagging missing information that ablefy then had to request from the merchant.

“It cost a lot of time and resources, and it also created frustration on the merchant side,” said Özkan Akkilic, ablefy’s founder and CEO.

ablefy needed a new payment partner with easy-to-implement technology and automated KYC compliance. ablefy also wanted to maintain a native onboarding experience so new users wouldn’t be redirected to a third-party page, where they might be reluctant to share data with an unfamiliar company.

The right solution needed the flexibility to support ablefy’s existing payout schedule, which delays payouts until the platform can verify that services have been delivered. This builds trust with end customers and minimizes fraud on the platform. ablefy also needed support for a range of payment methods and currencies, along with tools to improve payment authorization rates and prevent fraud, so it could scale globally with confidence.

Solution

In 2022, ablefy built a new payment platform on Stripe Connect, using a marketplace architecture that gave each business on the platform its own account to sell directly to consumers and serve as the merchant of record for its transactions.

With Connect, ablefy’s engineering team built a customized onboarding flow that provided a fully native experience for new users. Entrepreneurs can now complete the verification process without leaving the ablefy interface, while ablefy securely passes their information to Stripe for automated KYC review.

The ablefy team also used Connect’s flexible APIs to support its payout schedule. The company holds funds in merchant accounts for at least one week to confirm that the service or product paid for has been delivered.

With Connect, ablefy gained access to Stripe Payments for payment processing, giving it the multicurrency support and local payment methods it needs to expand into new markets. ablefy adopted Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite, using the payment element, to offer payment methods tailored to customer preferences across markets. ablefy enabled credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Pay by Bank, TWINT, SEPA, and Link, a digital wallet by Stripe that saves and autofills customers’ payment information. With the payment element, ablefy also gave merchants access to Klarna, allowing them to offer buy now, pay later (BNPL) options to their customers.

ablefy also adopted Stripe Authorization Boost to maximize payment acceptance rates and Stripe Radar to reduce fraudulent transactions and chargebacks. To help protect revenue and optimize its payments infrastructure, ablefy also chose a premium support plan.

Results

Custom onboarding flow provides fast, frictionless experience for digital entrepreneurs

By keeping new users within the ablefy environment rather than redirecting them to a Stripe-hosted page, ablefy made sign-ups significantly easier. Within six months, the share of merchants fully legitimated and ready to sell within their first 30 days rose from 33% to 47%, and median readiness fell by 35%—so merchants were able to launch their businesses in weeks rather than months.

“We are onboarding hundreds of merchants every month, and the process is much smoother now,” said Akkilic. “Not many providers can scale a platform the way Stripe does with Connect.”

ablefy improves payments performance with Authorization Boost and new payment methods

ablefy has saved nearly €700,000 by employing Authorization Boost’s AI-powered optimizations, which increased its payment authorization rate by 1.3%. Adding new payment methods through Stripe has also boosted revenue. Klarna has become ablefy’s most-used payment method after credit and debit cards, and the average order value (AOV) for Klarna transactions is 60.4% higher than for the next-highest payment method.

“Klarna has become one of the most requested payment methods on ablefy for a simple reason: it lets our sellers close deals on the terms that suit the buyer, without carrying the risk of that flexibility on their own balance sheet. The seller gets paid, the buyer gets the option to spread the cost, and nobody has to price in a default. For creators and coaches selling four-figure programmes, that’s the difference between a conversation and a conversion,” says Akkilic about the importance of BNPL to ablefy’s business.

ablefy solidifies its expansion plans with Stripe’s global reach

ablefy now has the financial infrastructure it needs to expand beyond its core German-speaking markets. The company plans to launch in additional European countries later this year, with expansion to other regions to follow. “Stripe already has the infrastructure we need to scale our business internationally,” said Akkilic.

ablefy is also exploring opportunities to deepen its partnership with Stripe. To better serve the evolving needs of merchants on the platform, the company is considering offering Stripe’s embedded finance capabilities, including financing and dedicated bank accounts.