Checkout.com, the global payment solutions provider, announces today
that it is taking funding from outside investors for the first time in
its history, having raised $230m in what is Europe’s largest fintech
Series A round ever, and globally the third largest fintech Series A
round of all time.
The record round, led by growth investors Insight Partners and DST
Global, underlines the ambition of the seven year old UK business, which
is transforming the world of digital commerce by providing merchants
with a solution that enables payments across all geographies and
channels. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Blossom Capital,
Endeavor Catalyst and other strategic investors are also participating
in the round. Checkout.com will use the funding to continue its rapid
growth in Europe, the US and the Middle East, with further expansion
into Asia and Latin America.
The London-headquartered company, whose solutions already power many of
the UK and EU’s leading fintechs, offers the world’s most comprehensive
cross-border payment solution for digital commerce. Checkout.com’s
proprietary technology helps fast growing businesses have seamless and
reliable global payment processing for both companies and consumers. The
business offers direct access to domestic acquiring across payment
methods and geographies, including all major credit and debit cards,
online banking, PayPal, Apple Pay and other eWallets. This is achieved
through a single, unified integrated platform which also provides fraud
management tools, analytics and comprehensive reporting features.
Founder Guillaume Pousaz said: “We have been fortunate to have some of
the world’s leading investors approach us for some time but our focus
has remained on building the very best suite of products we can for our
merchants on four continents. 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.
The capital will help us increase the speed at which we roll out new
products to address our merchants increasingly complex needs.
Performance in payments and data streams are key drivers of success for
merchants. Our objective remains to help our customers to grow their
businesses, by providing them with the solutions and insights they need
to win market share.”
Checkout.com enterprise customers include some of the world’s best known
brands, such as Samsung, Easygroup, Getty Images, Deliveroo,
Transferwise, Patreon and Virgin Active. It processes more than
150 currencies and has 345 staff, with nearly 200 based in London and
the rest in the company’s eight offices. Its team is expected to triple
over the next three years as the company expands its core business and
moves into new product areas.
Following the fundraising, Deven Parekh, Managing Partner at Insight
Partners and an early investor in Twitter, Alibaba and JD.com, will take
a seat on the board.
Deven Parekh said: “We’ve been following Checkout.com for some time and
we have been impressed by their dedication to building the right product
for their merchant customers, as well as their 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 that 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. Insight Partners is
excited to welcome the Checkout.com team to our portfolio, and look
forward to driving continued growth together.”
Tom Stafford, Managing Partner, DST Global, said: “Payments are a
critical component of any online business. With the digital payments
market expected to grow to $6 trillion by 2021, we believe Checkout.com
can expand rapidly through its technology-driven and customer-centric
payments solution. We are delighted to partner with Guillaume and the
team.”
Checkout.com has been advised in this transaction by FT Partners and law
firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
*According to Dealroom data on Series A fundraises, Immunocore ($320m)
was the largest Series A fundraise for a UK company in 2015, followed by
OakNorth ($200m) in Oct 2017. Outside biotech, the biggest Series A
round in Europe was TradePlus24 (Switzerland) in Jan 2019 ($120m).
– Ends –
About Checkout.com
Checkout.com
helps companies accept more payments around the world through one
integration. The tech company works with global businesses to optimise
their payments, with real-time data. Checkout’s unified global payment
processing platform features in-country acquiring, relevant payment
methods, feature parity across geographies, fraud filters and reporting
features, via one API. It helps businesses in Europe, the US and the
Middle East to achieve faster, more reliable processing in more than 150
currencies, with direct access to Visa, Mastercard, American Express,
all major international cards, as well as popular alternative and local
payment methods. For more see: www.checkout.com
About Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity
firm investing in high-growth technology and software companies that are
driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995,
Insight currently has over $20 billion of assets under management and
has cumulatively invested in more than 300 companies worldwide. Our
mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary
executives, providing them with practical, hands-on growth expertise to
foster long-term success. Across our people and our portfolio, we
encourage a culture around a core belief: growth equals opportunity. For
more information on Insight and all its investments, visit www.insightpartners.com
or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.
About DST Global
DST Global is one of the leading Internet investment groups globally.
Its portfolio includes some of the world’s leading and most valuable
Internet companies like Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb, Spotify, WhatsApp,
Alibaba and JD. DST Global is headquartered in Hong Kong and has offices
in Silicon Valley, New York, London and Beijing.
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