They were little known before the pandemic, but startups in the flourishing digital payment industry are now worth a fortune as COVID-19 has forced people to increasingly embrace e-commerce. Online shopping, contactless card readers and mobile payments are nothing new, but lockdowns and fears of contagion changed consumer behaviour during the coronavirus crisis. “2020 considerably accelerated the shift in consumer preferences to electronic payments and online shopping,” said Marc-Henri Desportes, deputy CEO of Worldline, a French payment and transactions processing firm. A trio of startups – Stripe, SumUp and Pledg – have benefited from the shift. Founded by two Irish brothers in 2011, Stripe catapulted to the forefront of the industry after its valuation soared to $95 billion (€80bn) in the past week, nearly tripling since last year. However, it still has a long way to catch up to the likes of Mastercard, valued above $300 billion. The California-based payments processing firm reached its new valuation after raising $600 million in funding from investors last weekend. On Tuesday, the British startup SumUp, which provides card payment terminals and online services, raised €750...