This continues Braintree's rapid international expansion into more than 30 countries this year, including most of Europe, Canada and now Australia.

Braintree offers easy integration for developers along with access to sophisticated payments tools such as single tap checkout and payment acceptance in more than 130 currencies. Braintree's payment platform has helped some of the most explosive startups launch and scale into multi-million dollar businesses. Ecommerce leaders using the Braintree platform include 99designs, Uber, LivingSocial, Airbnb, 37signals, OpenTable, Fab.com, GitHub, Heroku, Rovio/Angry Birds, and Hotel Tonight.

"Innovation in e-commerce and m-commerce is happening at a blistering pace and we see it around the world," said Bill Ready, CEO of Braintree. "Braintree is providing companies in more than 30 countries with access to the same payment tools that have enabled the best consumer purchasing experiences in e-commerce. We couldn't be more excited to see what Australian innovators will build on the Braintree platform."

The expansion of the Braintree platform to Australia comes at a critical time for the Australian e-commerce sector. E-commerce in Australia is exploding, and online and mobile payments are expected to double next year to more than $22 billion. However, startups in Australia have faced challenges in getting their businesses off the ground because of antiquated payment software that can be difficult to integrate. Braintree's payment platform allows developers to integrate in minutes rather than months and provides tools for next generation commerce experiences such as mobile payments. Once up and running on the Braintree platform, Australian startups will be able to accept payments in foreign currencies from around the globe.

Braintree's expansion also means that Australian startups can get assistance with PCI compliance directly from a payment service, something banks in Australia do not assist with. PCI compliance can require significant resources if undertaken by the merchant, but with Braintree, merchants eliminate more than 95% of the PCI compliance burden since Braintree keeps credit card data out of the merchant's IT environment.

Braintree currently processes more than $5 billion in transactions annually, including over $1 billion in mobile payments. A full list of the countries where the Braintree's payment platform is available can be viewed on Braintree's international payment processing page on the company's website. International clients gain instant access to Braintree's developer sandbox, vault credit card storage system, and world-class customer service. Australian merchants can sign up for a Braintree account here.