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Image credit: GoCardless

GoCardless, a London-based fintech company, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $312M (approx €273M) in a Series G round of funding at a valuation of $2.1B (approx €1.8B). This capital injection makes GoCardless the latest UK tech unicorn. 

The round was led by Permira with participation from new investor BlackRock Private Equity Partners. The latest funding round comes a year after the company secured €77.5M (approx €67.8M) in a Series F round. 

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Fund utilisation

The funding will enable the UK company to grow its footprint in the open banking space through product development and geographical expansion. 

Hiroki Takeuchi, co-founder and CEO of GoCardless, says, “The rise of open banking presents a once-in-a-generation shift, one that will change the way payments happen all over the world. I am delighted to have partners like Permira and BlackRock Private Equity Partners on board, with their global footprint and strong expertise in tech, to support us in building a direct bank payment network that lets payments flow freely, without cards, expiration dates, or extra costs. I look forward to working with them and our new board members to accelerate the future development of GoCardless.”

GoCardless also expanded its Board of Directors with the appointment of Michael Rouse, former Chief Commercial Officer at Klarna, and Koen Köppen, Chief Technology Officer at Klarna and Board Member of Mollie, joining as an independent director.

GoCardless: What you need to know

Founded by Hiroki Takeuchi, Matt Robinson and Tom Blomfield, GoCardless helps businesses to process recurring payments around the world. 

Each year, GoCardless processes over $30B (approx €26.2B) of payments across more than 30 countries for many companies, including DocuSign, Klarna, TripAdvisor, and Epson. 

Since its last funding round, the company’s valuation has more than doubled, while headcount has grown by 85 per cent.

The company launched Instant Bank Pay, a new way to collect one-off bank-to-bank payments using open banking. 

GoCardless claims that it has already helped thousands of merchants in the UK and Europe process millions of dollars worth of one-time payments.

Klarna, a Swedish company known for Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) service, partnered with GoCardless recently to offer bank debit payments to its over 21M customers in the US.

Also, PayPal and GoCardless have signed a strategic agreement that will see GoCardless become a direct debit partner for PayPal. 

GoCardless is headquartered in the UK, with additional offices in Australia, France, Germany, and the United States.

Investor

Permira is a global investment firm that backs successful businesses with growth ambitions. With assets under management (AUM) of approximately €58B, the company makes long-term majority and minority investments. 

The Permira funds have made approximately 300 private equity investments in four key sectors: Technology, Consumer, Services, and Healthcare. 

Alberto Riva, Principal at Permira, says, “We believe GoCardless is uniquely positioned to become a global champion in account-to-account payments through leveraging open banking. We are thrilled to back Hiroki and his excellent team to continue innovating and offering best-in-class solutions that are cheaper, faster, and a more secure way of collecting payments globally.”