Venture capital activity continues to dominate the UK Fintech scene, as London-based payment solutions provider Checkout.com confirms that it has secured a $230 million ‘Series A’ funding round.
The investment sees Checkout.com join European tech’s ‘Unicorn Club’, as the transaction sees the enterprise secure a valuation of + €/£1 billion.
In its statement, Checkout.com details that it completed ‘the largest fintech Series A round in Europe ever and the third largest globally at $230m’, with the venture securing investment from the likes of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and Insight Partners.
The size of the funding round has surprised tech observers, as Checkout.com remains a relatively unknown prospect within the ultra-saturated digital payments sector, competing for market share against the likes of Adyen, PayPal, Stripe, iZettle and BrainTree.
Operating since 2012, Checkout.com has built a ‘100% proprietary stack’, benefitting its customers with faster and more agile integration, support for 150 currencies, and deeper user reporting across all functions of payments’ value chain.
“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.” Pousaz detailed to media.
Company founder & CEO Guillaume Pousaz noted the calibre and experience of Checkout.com’s investors, who have backed enterprises such as Twitter, JD.com and Alibaba.
Moving forward, tech observers will be monitoring Checkout.com movements closely, assessing whether its VCs have backed a further ‘Fintech winner’, replicating the € multi-billion Adyen payment solutions on Amsterdam’s Euronext exchange last June.
