Checkout.com (with the legal name of the main entity as Checkout Ltd.) is a British multinational

financial technology Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are ...

company that processes payments for other companies. Founded as Opus Payments in 2009, it is headquartered in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It had a valuation of $40 billion in 2022, making it the most valuable European fintech

startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

. Customers include

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert at d ...

, and

digital asset A digital asset is anything that exists only in digital form and comes with a distinct usage right. Data that do not possess that right are not considered assets. ''Digital assets'' include but are not exclusive to: digital documents, audible ...

exchange

Coinbase Coinbase Global, Inc., branded Coinbase, is an American publicly traded company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Coinbase is a distributed company; all employees operate via remote work and the company lacks a physical headquar ...

History

Checkout.com was founded in 2009 by Swiss national

Guillaume Pousaz Guillaume Pousaz (born 1981) is a Dubai-based Swiss-born billionaire entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. He is the CEO and founder of payment platform Checkout.com. As of April 2023, he has an estimated net worth of US$7.2 billion accor ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

under the name Opus Payments, which processed payments for merchants in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. The company became profitable in 2011 through a deal with Chinese tech gadget trading website Dealextreme. In 2012, Opus Payments was renamed Checkout.com and registered in the U.K. In 2013, Checkout.com was granted membership with

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

and Mastercard, and Checkout.com subsequently focused on partnerships with

Alipay Alipay () is a third-party mobile and online payment platform, established in Hangzhou, China in February 2004 by Alibaba Group and its founder Jack Ma. In 2015, Alipay moved its headquarters to Pudong, Shanghai, although its parent company An ...

and

WeChat WeChat () is a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has bee ...

. In 2018, the company joined

London & Partners London & Partners (L&P) is the promotional company for the city of London, England. History It was set up by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, on 1 April 2011. It is a PPP and not-for-profit business focused on promotion of London driving jobs a ...

' Mayor's International Business Programme. In 2019, the company received a $230 million

Series A funding A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

round led by

Insight Partners Insight Partners (previously Insight Venture Partners) is an American venture capital and private equity firm based in New York City. The firm invests in growth-stage technology, software and Internet businesses. History Insight Partners was fo ...

and

DST Global DST Global is a venture capital and private equity firm that primarily invests in late-stage internet companies. DST Global has been described as one of the largest and most influential venture firms in the world, with an estimated $50 billion in ...

. After additional funding rounds, the company's valuation had increased to $15 billion by June 2020. In May 2020, it acquired Australian company Pin Payments, allowing Checkout.com to expand into the Australian and New Zealand markets. In January 2022, the company announced a $1 billion funding round, surpassing the value of competitors such as

Revolut Revolut is a British financial technology company that offers banking services, but did not have a UK banking licence. Headquartered in London, it was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. It offers accounts featuring currency ...

and Wise. Investors included the Qatar Investment Authority and

Tiger Global Management Tiger Global Management, LLC (often referred to as Tiger Global and formerly known as Tiger Technology) is an American investment firm. It mainly focuses on Internet, software, consumer, and financial technology industries. Background and histo ...

, among others. The company announced it would use the capital to invest in

Web3 Web3 (also known as Web 3.0) is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics. Some technologists and journalists have contrasted it w ...

applications. In May 2022, Checkout.com announced it was acquiring French startup Ubble, which provides a remote identity verification service.

References

{{reflist Business software Companies based in London Financial technology Merchant services Online payments Payment service providers