The online payments specialist secured significant backing from venture capital giants Insight Partners and DST Global
Open banking has the potential to disrupt the payments industry (Credit: Hloom/Flickr)
Online payments specialist Checkout.com has raised $230m (£176m) in what is Europe’s largest-ever Series A investment round for a fintech.
The London firm, which provides digital payments services to the likes of Samsung, Deliveroo, Transferwise and Patreon, will use the funding to continue its growth across Europe, the US and the Middle East, as well as to enter new markets in Asia and Latin America.
The investment round was led by venture capital giants Insight Partners and DST Global, with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Blossom Capital and Endeavor Catalyst also participating.
Checkout.com hopes investment can make it a global leader in payments processing
Checkout.com provides cross border payments services to merchants around the world, using real-time data to optimise and simplify the transaction process for businesses through a single platform.
Founder Guillaume Pousaz said: “Having built a sustainable business, one hire at a time, it was crucial to find partners that share our vision of how enterprise businesses will consume financial services in the future.
“We have anticipated this from our early days, and have designed Checkout.com’s platform from the outset so that we can easily deliver incremental services to our customers as the company expands its offering.
“Bringing world-class investors on board for our first funding round is a validation of everything the Checkout.com team has worked hard to achieve over the years, and a way to flag just how serious we are about building a global leader that can serve any business, in any geography.
“Performance in payments and data streams is a key driver of success for merchants.
“Our objective remains to help our customers grow their businesses by providing them with the solutions and insights they need to win market share.”
Insight Partners executive will join the Checkout.com board
As part of the funding arrangement, Deven Parekh, a managing partner at Insight Partners will take a seat on the Checkout.com board.
He said: “We’ve been following Checkout.com for some time and we have been impressed by its dedication to building the right product for merchant customers, as well as its commitment to creating a profitable business.
“The payments world is changing rapidly and online payments will be the source of most financial services in future.
“We are confident Checkout.com will attract a great proportion of those transactions because its product and unified platform provide the full range of services that growing enterprises require.”
Checkout.com plans to triple its headcount over next three years
The company accepts payments in more than 150 currencies, and is integrated with Visa, Mastercard, American Express and all major international payment cards.
Founded in 2012, the firm now employs more than 300 people across its eight international offices – including in the US, Asia and Africa.
It expects to triple this number over the next three years as it expands its core business and moves into new product areas.