Adyen is a Dutch

payment company A payment service provider (PSP) is a third-party company that assists businesses to accept electronic payments, such as credit cards and debit cards payments. PSPs act as intermediaries between those who make payments, i.e. consumers, and those ...

with status of an

acquiring bank An acquiring bank (also known simply as an acquirer) is a bank or financial institution that processes credit or debit card payments on behalf of a merchant. The acquirer allows merchants to accept credit card payments from the card-issuing bank ...

that allows businesses to accept

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manag ...

, mobile, and

point-of-sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice ...

payments. It is listed on the stock exchange

Euronext Euronext N.V. (short for European New Exchange Technology) is a pan-European bourse that offers various trading and post-trade services. Traded assets include regulated equities, exchange-traded funds (ETF), warrants and certificates, bonds, ...

. Adyen offers merchants online services for merchants to accept

electronic payment An e-commerce payment system (or an electronic payment system) facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for offline transfer, also known as a subcomponent of electronic data interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become incr ...

s using payment methods including

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the ...

debit cards A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The term '' plastic card'' includes the above and as an identity document. These are similar to a credit card, but u ...

, wire transfers, and real-time bank transfers based on

online banking Online banking, also known as internet banking, web banking or home banking, is an electronic payment system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial ins ...

. It connects merchants to different payment methods, including international credit cards, local cash-based methods, and

mobile payment A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of ...

methods. The technology platform acts as a

payment gateway A payment gateway is a merchant service provided by an e-commerce application service provider that authorizes credit card or direct payments processing for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar. The ...

and a

payment service provider A payment service provider (PSP) is a third-party company that assists businesses to accept electronic payments, such as credit cards and debit cards payments. PSPs act as intermediaries between those who make payments, i.e. consumers, and those ...

History

Adyen was founded in 2006 by Pieter van der Does and

Arnout Schuijff Arnout Schuijff (born 1967/1968) is a Dutch billionaire Internet entrepreneur, and the co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) of Adyen. From 1997 to 2004, Schuijff was systems architect at Bibit Global Payment Services. In 2006, Schuijff ...

, now the CEO and CTO respectively. Headquartered in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, the company employs around 2,000 people in offices in twenty three countries. The name Adyen means 'start again' in

Sranan Tongo Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue," Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a ''lingua franca'' by approximately 550,000 people in Suriname. Developed originally amo ...

. This is a reference to this being the second project of the founders, after Bibit. In 2012, Adyen started to expand globally, opening its offices in San Francisco, Paris, and London. In the same year, it obtained its pan-European acquiring license. In 2015, Adyen achieved a valuation of $2.3 billion, making it the sixth largest European

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

. In 2016, it obtained an acquiring license in Brazil through a BIN sponsorship. In the same year, Adyen was ranked #10 on the

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

Cloud 100 list. In April 2017, the company was granted a European

banking license A banking licence is a legal prerequisite for a financial institution that wants to carry on a banking business. Under the laws of most jurisdictions, a business is not permitted to carry words like a ''bank'', ''insurance'', ''national'' in th ...

, which gives it the status of an

. It also obtained acquiring licenses in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand. On 24 May 2018, the company announced that it would be making the company public by listing shares publicly in

. The IPO took place on 13 June 2018. In 2019, Adyen opened new offices in Tokyo and Mumbai, and expanded its payment offering in Africa. In the same year, it launched Adyen Issuing, a virtual and physical card-issuing business to complement payments services to merchants. In 2020, the company benefited from an accelerated digitalization of global ecommerce in the online retail segment, which compensated the declining travel volumes in enterprises, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. It launched mobile Android POS devices worldwide in the second half of the year. In addition, it opened a new office in Dubai, expanding its offering in the Middle East.

Growth

The company has been profitable since 2011. Its earnings grew from $46 million in 2015 to $87 million in 2016. Its gross revenue grew 99 percent in 2016 to $727 million. In December 2014, the company announced a funding round of $250 million led by growth equity firm

General Atlantic General Atlantic (also known as "GA") is an American growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for global growth companies, headquartered in New York, United States. The firm was founded in 1980 as the captive investment team for ...

, joined by existing investors

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...

Index Ventures Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/ AI, and security. Since ...

, and Felicis Ventures. In 2016, the company saw transaction volume increase to $90 billion, up from $50 billion in 2015. In 2017, Adyen surpassed €100 billion in processed volume. On January 31, 2018

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

announced that it had signed an agreement with Adyen to become its primary payments processing partner. eBay began intermediation on a small scale in North America starting in the second half of 2018, expanding in 2019 under the terms of the operating agreement with

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

. In 2021, eBay transitioned a majority of its marketplace customers to Adyen. In 2020, Adyen had a net revenue of €684 million, a 28% increase year-on-year. In 2021, net revenue hit €1 billion.

References

{{Euro Stoxx 50 Companies Financial services companies established in 2006 Payment service providers Companies based in Amsterdam Companies in the Euro Stoxx 50 Companies listed on Euronext Amsterdam