Checkout.com CEO Guillaume Pousaz reflects on the company’s uneven path to scale.
Checkout.com secured its Brazilian regulatory licence on 26 December 2025, but then chose not to launch.
In a candid annual letter, CEO Guillaume Pousaz revealed the payments giant deliberately paused its Brazil rollout after deciding its initial proposition was not yet “best-in-class”. Its decision underscores a shift from the company’s breakneck expansion years toward a more measured, profitability-focused strategy.
“While our team moved with incredible pace, securing our local license from the regulator on 26 December 2025, we realised upon closer inspection that our initial proposition wasn’t yet “best-in-class” for that specific market,” he wrote.
“We aimed for velocity, but we underestimated the depth of local nuance required to truly win. Rather than launching a compromise, we’ve chosen to pause, listen to our merchants, and redouble our efforts.
“We don’t just want to be live in Brazil; we want to set the benchmark. This is the compounding effect in action: the maturity to recognise a ‘missed point’ today is exactly what ensures we win the match for our merchants tomorrow.”
Looking at the headline figures, the payments processor handled more than $300bn in total payment volume, a 64% year over year increase, while net revenue also grew above 30% for the second consecutive year.
According to Pousaz, however, the company measures success through its merchants, with its portfolio now supporting more than 1,000 enterprise merchants globally. This focus on adding merchants has seen an expansion of its Billion Dollar Club, a group of businesses each processing over $1bn annually, with membership rising to 63 companies, up from 39 a year earlier.
Among those in the club are eBay and Temu, both of which signed new partnership agreements with Checkout.com in 2025. The company says its ability to attract large global platforms has been supported by global expansion.
Handling merchants at scale places growing demands on infrastructure, particularly during peak retail periods, with the biggest test coming during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, when 300 Checkout merchants each processed more than $1m over the four days.
In total, the company handled $5.2bn in payment volume across the weekend and nearly 100 million transactions were processed, with 95% completing in under one second, 30% faster than the previous year.
Learning through the losses
A recurring theme throughout the letter is the value of learning from setbacks. Pousaz referenced tennis player Roger Federer’s well known statistic that he won 80% of his matches but only 54% of his points.
“At Checkout, we play a lot of points. We win more than we lose, but we never let a lost point define the match. Progress is never a straight line; it’s a series of learnings that compound over time,” wrote Pusaz.
He placed the company’s recent history in phases, describing the period from 2019 to 2024 as the “velocity years.” During this time Checkout prioritised rapid expansion, hiring and new market entry. While profitability remained out of reach, revenue growth was strong.
“Fueled by $1.8bn in capital, we scaled at a 50% net revenue CAGR, expanding to 56 countries and securing ten direct acquiring licenses, including our recent US bank charter’” he explained.
The aggressive push was not without turbulence, however. In 2023, the company faced scrutiny after its UK transaction processing revenue fell 13% to $204m gross, profit dropped 23% to $57m and losses surged 73% to $306m. Checkout stressed at the time the UK figures represented only a small portion of global operations.
Betting on AI and the next phase
The company says it entered 2026 with more than 1,000 enterprise customers and has returned to full year EBITDA profitability, with an adjusted EBITDA margin above 10%.
The strategy now focuses on interoperability across emerging AI driven commerce channels, with Checkout aiming to give merchants access to agentic platforms through a single payments provider, including connections to Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, alongside card network credential frameworks from Visa and Mastercard.
“We have never been here for quick wins; we are building for the next 40 years. As I close my first 20 year chapter, I can confidently declare that Checkout.com will be my life long journey. I want to dedicate all my energy to compounding every learning, to further our mission and create value for our merchants,” he concluded.
“By the end of 2026, Checkout.com will grow to 2,500 professionals worldwide, all deeply trained in payments, AI, financial technology, and our Human OS.”
