Mollie buys GoCardless in €1.05bn deal

Dutch payments firm Mollie is acquiring UK payments fintech GoCardless in a €1.05bn deal, the two fintechs have confirmed.

The two fintechs have billed the combination as creating a “payments powerhouse”, confirming rumours of the tie-up which surfaced in the summer.

GoCardless, which employs around 800 people, is a payment platform that lets businesses collect one-off and recurring payments, such as subscriptions and membership fees, via direct debit, rather than credit cards or bank transfers.

The fintech, which has also made a play in open banking, is headed up by Hiroki Takeuchi, a well-known figure in the UK fintech ecosystem.

Mollie, which employs more than 900 people, is primarily known as a payments fintech, focusing on the European SME market, processing tens of billions of Euros in transaction volumes each year. Mollie competes against the likes of PayPal, Stripe, Adyen and legacy players like JP Morgan.

The FT reported that the deal was made up of 90 per cent stock and a small cash element.

A spokesperson for GoCardless said it was too early to say if the deal would lead to job cuts.

The fintechs said that the combination creates a company serving over 350,000 businesses that integrates card payments and bank payments into a single offering.

Koen Köppen, CEO of Mollie, said: "GoCardless built the definitive solution to optimise this process with its global bank payment network. By bringing them into Mollie, we take a huge step towards fulfilling our vision and creating one complete platform for sustainable growth."

Takeuchi, co-founder and CEO, GoCardless, said: "This deal brings together two highly complementary businesses that have built best-in-class products across Europe and beyond.  

"By combining our expertise in card, bank and hyperlocal payments into one provider, we can better serve our customers, accelerate growth and raise the bar for the industry. It’s a win for European fintech and we’re confident that the new company will be greater than the sum of its parts.”

GoCardless, which is profitable, was valued at $2bn in 2022.  It is backed by Balderton Capital, Accel, Permira and BlackRock.

Mollie, which is backed by Blackstone, was valued at around $6.5 billion in 2021.