Silicon Valley payments startup Stripe has officially opened a Chicago office as it looks to hire dozens of engineers and salespeople across the city.
Stripe announced Thursday that it's launched a Chicago outpost at 515 N. State St. The office, which is located inside a WeWork, currently holds around 15 employees and expects to grow to 40 by the end of the year, Stripe co-founder and President John Collison said in an interview.
A large focus of the Chicago space will be on engineering, a trend Chicago has seen in recent years as more Silicon Valley companies recruit for high-tech roles in the Windy City.
Collison said Chicago's growing startup ecosystem and access to tech talent were big drivers for why Stripe decided to open a Chicago office.
"The tech ecosystem (in Chicago) is really good," he said. "I would predict you’re going to see way more companies setting up here."
For years, coastal tech companies viewed Chicago as a place to open a regional sales hub, with little focus on research and development. Today, Chicago is home to several expanding tech companies that are opening local engineering hubs. Salesforce is planning to add 1,000 new jobs in Chicago over the next five years, Facebook and Google are growing fast in Chicago, Accenture plans to add 600 high-skilled tech jobs in Chicago by 2022, and Glassdoor is planning to hire hundreds more in Chicago.
Even the Winklevoss twins are taking advantage of Chicago's growing tech scene with the opening of a local engineering hub for Gemini, their cryptocurrency startup.
Stripe's software is used by companies like Lyft, OpenTable and Instacart, who utilize Stripe to accept online payments. Its customers also include Chicago-based comedy club The Second City and local logistics startup ShipBob. It has a competitor in Braintree, a Chicago-based company that was acquired by PayPal in 2013. Stripe, founded in 2010, is valued at $20 billion and has 2,000 employees across its offices in San Francisco, Dublin, Seattle, Singapore and elsewhere.
Collison wouldn't say how big Stripe's office could eventually be, but noted that the Chicago outpost could grow significantly if all goes well.
"If the talent ends up being awesome, and the office is really productive, we can make this as big as it can get," he said. "We would love to do more hiring in Chicago than less."
