Payments company Checkout.com raises $1bn in new funding and doubles valuation to $40bn

UK digital payment services provider Checkout.com has raised $1 billion in a Series D funding round that has more than doubled its valuation to around $40bn, amid its plans to expand in the US.

Main investors in the company's latest funding round include Altimeter, Dragoneer, Franklin Templeton, GIC, Insight Partners, the Qatar Investment Authority, Tiger Global, the Oxford Endowment Fund and "another large west coast mutual fund management firm", Checkout.com said. Several of the company’s existing investors also participated in the round.

The new funding is a stark increase compared to the company's 2021 Series C round when Checkout.com raised $450 million at a $15bn valuation. The company's valuation has surged 20 times since its first fundraising in 2019 – a Series A round worth $230m with a valuation of $2bn – making it one of the world's most valuable start-ups when compared to content provider Visual Capitalist's list of the biggest.

"We've built deep partnerships with some of the world’s most innovative companies. Our Series D is validation of that work – but given we’re still in ‘chapter zero’ of our journey, it will also fuel our efforts to unlock the enormous untapped opportunity ahead," Guillaume Pousaz, founder and chief executive of Checkout.com, said.

The global digital payments sector was one of the few that emerged a winner during the Covid-19 pandemic as people increasingly adopted online transactions. This trend is expected to continue even after the health crisis because of the convenience it presents to consumers.

The digital payments market is projected to grow to more than $9.07 trillion by 2025, from a forecast of $5.87tn in 2021, according to data provider Research and Markets.

The change in the growth trend is mainly due to companies stabilising their output after catering to the demand that grew exponentially during the pandemic's height in 2020, it added.

And while the industry posted its first contraction in 11 years in 2020, it is poised to quickly return to its long-term growth trajectory, according to management consultant company McKinsey & Company.

Checkout.com's rise is notable, considering there were 35 start-ups with a valuation of more than $10bn as of December 2021, data from Visual Capitalist shows. The company's valuation would place it fifth on that list, surpassing US logistics platform Instacart. TikTok parent ByteDance is No 1 with around $140bn.

In the past 12 months, the London-based company grew rapidly in its home markets of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, tripling the volume of transactions processed for the third year in a row, it said.

Checkout.com has invested heavily in its domestic technology infrastructure in the US, as it tries to keep pace with the world's largest e-commerce market.

"We have long-faced substantial demand to serve the US market, and with our Series D, we’re doubling down on our commitment to scaling our platform, partnerships and products for customers here,” said Céline Dufétel, chief financial officer of Checkout.com.

“Much like our approach in Emea, we will maintain our focus on the enterprise, especially FinTech, software, food delivery, travel, e-commerce and crypto merchants."

Checkout.com opened new offices in six countries across four continents in the past year to cater to surging demand from merchants, a list that includes streaming service Netflix, Japan's Sony and Pizza Hut, plus FinTech unicorns such as Klarna, Qonto, Revolut and WorldRemit, and many of the world’s largest cryptocurrency players, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, FTX and MoonPay.

It also expanded its executive leadership team in the US and Europe, with new heads for finance, human resources, marketing, product, revenue and technology, while growing its overall employee base to more than 1,700 people in 19 countries.