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The Stripe logo pictured on a smartphone with U.S. dollar banknotes in in the background.
Budrul Chukrut | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty Images

LONDON — Stripe on Thursday debuted a new product that it says will make it easier for businesses to calculate and collect sales taxes, marking the digital payment giant’s latest push into other areas of finance.

The service, called Stripe Tax, will automate the calculation and collection of sales tax, value-added tax and goods and services tax for transactions made through Stripe’s platform. British newspaper publisher News UK and Dutch start-up Routetitan are among those already using the service.

Matt Henderson, Stripe’s EMEA lead, said working out how much sales tax needs to be paid on certain transactions can be a complex process, with rules varying across different countries. In the U.S., there are over 11,000 different sales tax jurisdictions, “often the size of a small town,” Henderson told CNBC.

“There’s a lot of different variables that go into determining what’s the right rate and when is it due for collection and payment,” he added. “In Germany, for example, a pet rabbit is 19% VAT and a pet guinea pig is 7% VAT, whereas in the U.K. or Ireland you wouldn’t make a distinction on such things.”

Businesses can enable Stripe Tax by adding a single line of code to their website, the company said. Stripe will use data like a customer’s location and the product or service being sold to work out how much tax is due. Stripe makes money by taking a small cut of the transaction from its merchants.

Stripe, which competes with the likes of Square, Adyen and Checkout.com, got a big boost from the coronavirus pandemic last year as many businesses moved online due to lockdown restrictions around the world.

Stripe attracted more than 500,000 new clients in Europe alone since the start of the pandemic, according to Henderson. The company has been increasingly expanding into areas beyond payments, such as lending and bank accounts from partners like Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

However, Stripe ruled out any intention of becoming a fully-fledged bank, with President John Collison saying last year he doesn’t believe in the Silicon Valley mentality of “doing everything themselves.”

Stripe was last privately valued at $95 billion in a March funding round. The company said it would use the fresh funds to expand its European operations. Stripe’s sales tax software was developed out of Dublin, where it employs about 80 engineers.

“We really need to be in investment mode, partly because there is still unfinished business in payments but also because there’s just so many other things adjacent to payments that are obstacles for businesses to grow online,” Henderson said.

The launch of the company’s new product comes after it acquired U.S. start-up TaxJar, which specializes in sales tax software, in April.

According to Bank of America, the total addressable market for sales tax is estimated to be worth $24 billion. A number of companies compete in the space, including sales tax specialists Avalara and accounting software provider Intuit.

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Here are the SpaceX employees who were elected to run Musk’s new company town of Starbase, Texas

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Here are the SpaceX employees who were elected  to run Musk's new company town of Starbase, Texas

The SpaceX Starship sits on a launch pad at Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on October 12, 2024, ahead of the Starship Flight 5 test. The test will involve the return of Starship’s Super Heavy Booster to the launch site.

Sergio Flores | Afp | Getty Images

Over the weekend, Elon Musk got his new company town along the Texas Gulf Coast. Controlling the city are three SpaceX employees, who all ran unopposed.

As NBC News reported, the election determining incorporation of the city of Starbase concluded on Saturday night, with 212 votes in favor and only six against. Just 143 votes were needed for the measure to pass.

Starbase was victorious in becoming a type C city, which in Texas applies to a previously unincorporated city, town or village of between 201 and 4,999 inhabitants. The city includes the SpaceX launch facility and company-owned land covering a 1.6 square-mile area.

The mayor is 36-year-old Bobby Peden, who has spent more than 12 years working for SpaceX and is currently vice president for Texas test and launch operations. Prior to joining the rocket maker in 2013, Peden was a graduate research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Starbase has two commissioners, both from the SpaceX employee ranks.

One is Jenna Petrzelka, 39, who was an operations engineering manager at SpaceX until July, and now identifies as a philanthropist, according to her application to be on the ballot. She’s married to Joe Petrzelka, a vice president of Starship engineering and almost 14-year veteran at SpaceX.

The other commissioner is Jordan Buss, 40, a senior director of environmental health and safety for SpaceX who joined the company in 2023.

Musk, who has assumed a central role in President Donald Trump’s administration responsible for slashing the size of the federal government, began acquiring land for SpaceX in Boca Chica, Texas, about a decade ago. The first integrated Starship vehicle launched from the site, known as Starbase, in April 2023, and exploded in mid-flight.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service soon disclosed details about the aftermath of the explosion, including that a “3.5-acre fire started south of the pad site on Boca Chica State Park land,” following the test flight.

State and federal regulators have fined SpaceX for violations of the Clean Water Act, and said the company had repeatedly polluted waters in the Boca Chica area. Environmental advocates and indigenous groups have also sued both the Federal Aviation Administration and SpaceX over the company’s flight tests and launch activity in the area.

Those groups said in legal filings that SpaceX caused harm to local habitat and endangered species due to vehicle traffic, noise, heat, explosions and fragmentation caused by the company’s construction, rocket testing and launch practices.

A SpaceX spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a post on X on Saturday, the account for StarbaseTX wrote, “Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity’s place in space.”

WATCH: SpaceX launches third test flight of massive Starship rocket

SpaceX launches third test flight of massive Starship rocket

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Hims & Hers gives weak outlook but says more collaborations are coming

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Hims & Hers gives weak outlook but says more collaborations are coming

Cheng Xin | Getty Images

Shares of Hims & Hers Health fell in extended trading on Monday after the company reported first-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ expectations but offered weaker-than-expected guidance.

Here’s how the company did based on average analysts’ estimates compiled by LSEG:

  • Earnings per share: 20 cents vs. 12 cents
  • Revenue: $586 million vs. $538 million

Revenue at the telehealth company increased 111% in the first quarter from $278.2 million during the same period last year, according to a release. Hims & Hers reported a net income of $49.5 million, or 20 cents per share, compared to $11.1 million, or 5 cents per share, during the same period a year earlier.

For its second quarter, Hims & Hers said it expected to report revenue between $530 million and $550 million, short of the $564.6 million expected by analysts polled by StreetAccount. The company said its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, for the quarter will be between the range of $65 million and $75 million, while StreetAccount analysts were expecting $70.4 million.

Hims & Hers’ stock has had a turbulent start to the year, notching several double-digit moves over the past few months. On April 29, shares rocketed up 20% after Novo Nordisk said it would offer its weight loss drug Wegovy through telehealth providers such as Hims & Hers.

The company said Monday that more collaborations are coming.

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“Over time, we expect wider collaboration across the industry, inclusive of pharmaceutical players, innovative leaders in diagnostic and preventative testing, and world class providers,” Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum said in the release. “We believe this will strengthen our ecosystem and position us to curate a best-in-class offering that can reach tens of millions of people.” 

Hims & Hers reported adjusted EBITDA of $91.1 million for its first quarter, up from $32.3 million last year and above the $61.3 million expected by StreetAccount.

Earlier on Monday, Hims & Hers announced Nader Kabbani will join the company as its chief operations officer. Kabbani spent nearly 20 years at Amazon, where he oversaw the launch of Amazon Pharmacy, the company’s acquisition of PillPack and its global Covid-19 Vaccination Task Force. 

Hims & Hers will hold its quarterly call with investors at 5:00 p.m. ET.

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Hinge Health says revenue increased 50% in first quarter — still no price range for IPO

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Hinge Health says revenue increased 50% in first quarter — still no price range for IPO

Hinge Health’s TrueMotion feature.

Courtesy: Hinge Health

Hinge Health on Monday updated its prospectus to include the results from its first quarter, which showed accelerating revenue growth over its fourth quarter.

The digital physical therapy startup filed to go public in March, but it has not shared a price range yet. Hinge said that revenue in its first quarter climbed 50% to $123.8 million, up from $82.7 million during the same period last year. Hinge reported $117.3 million in revenue during its fourth quarter, up 44% from the same period in 2023.

Hinge said its net income for the period was $17.1 million after taxes, up from a net loss of $26.5 million after taxes during the same period last year.

The company is attempting to go public at a time of extreme economic uncertainty and market volatility, spurred largely by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policy. Several companies, including online lender Klarna and ticket marketplace StubHub, have delayed their long-awaited IPOs.

Hinge’s updated prospectus signals to investors that the company is planning to forge ahead.

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While the company’s revenue jumped 50%, the cost of goods sold fell slightly. That allowed Hinge to lift its gross margin to 81% from 70% a year earlier and record an operating income of $13.1 million after losing $31. 4 million in the same period a year earlier.

Hinge uses software to help patients treat acute musculoskeletal injuries, chronic pain and carry out post-surgery rehabilitation remotely. Large employers cover the costs so their employees can access Hinge’s app-based virtual physical therapy, as well as its wearable electrical nerve stimulation device called Enso. 

Daniel Perez, Hinge’s CEO, and Gabriel Mecklenburg, the company’s executive chairman, co-founded the company in 2014 after experiencing personal struggles with physical rehabilitation.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Q1 2025 was the company’s first profitable quarter. Hinge was profitable previously.

WATCH: IPO window likely to open in first half of 2026: PitchBook

IPO window likely to open in first half of 2026: PitchBook

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