GoCardless Raises $95 Million as It Nears $1 Billion in Valuation

A London-based fintech company GoCardless LTD has been able to raise around $95 million in series F funding which pushed the company’s valuation higher. According to the report, the funding series was led by Bain Capital Ventures. This is a good development by the company considering Its performance in 2020 was 46% better than the previous year due to the global pandemic that caused a spike in usage of eCommerce. This brings the total amount raised to $250 million as it seeks to materialize its open banking vision coupled with the positive growth of the recurring payment network.

GoCardless LTD has always sought to become the stopping point for companies who demand their clients or customers to make payments through the recurring bank payment. They also seek to improve their offering in the adjacent e-commerce market.

According to the report, the company looks forward to making open banking enabled bank-to-bank payment more secure and easy in addition to the cheap cost as a replacement for cards. GoCardless asserts that as bank debit improves cash flow, open banking will play a key role in making visibility and speed a reality.

The Co-Founder and CEO of GoCardless, Hiroki Takeuchi, believes that the combination of the direct debit platform and open banking will play magic as they are complementary.

“They are complementary as open banking is faster and more secure but direct debit is more flexible and more reliable. The combination will create something entirely new and unique that will not only make our product better for our existing customers but also enable us to go after new markets,” he said.

Takeuchi revealed that the company has been following open banking for some time, but they had issues with it as they felt it was not good enough for payment. After a long time of deliberation, they believe this is the time to consider the open banking platform.

GoCardless LTD nears a $1 billion valuation to earn the Unicorn status. Currently, the new funding takes the company’s valuation to around $970 million as pointed by reports. According to Takeuchi, they did not plan for this, though they knew they would raise money this year. The situation companies faced this year and the recorded growth of GoCardless LTD reveals how it was built to show a lot of business resilience.

Another important thing to consider is the rate at which American investors are involved in fundraising by European startups. According to Atomico Investment Holdings LTD, the involvement of at least one American investor in fundraising by European startups has risen from 16% to 19% in 2020. Matt Harris, a partner at Bain Capital Ventures has said that it is night and day when how European founders are building businesses worth billions of dollars is considered.

You can find more news from the fintech world here.