What is Checkout.com?
Global payment infrastructure for high-volume enterprise merchants
- Category
- Payment Infrastructure
- Headquarters
- London, UK
- Founded
- 2012
- Employees
- ~2,000
- Total Funding
- $1.83B
- Valuation
- $12B (Sep 2025 share buyback)
What is Checkout.com?
Checkout.com is a London-headquartered global payment infrastructure company that enables large enterprise merchants to accept, process, and optimize digital payments across 150+ currencies and 50+ acquiring markets. Founded in 2012 by Guillaume Pousaz, it processed over $300 billion in total payment volume (TPV) in 2025 — up 64% year-over-year — and achieved full-year EBITDA profitability in 2025 with adjusted margins above 10%.
Checkout.com operates a full-stack payments platform: acquiring, authorization routing, fraud detection, card issuing, identity verification, payouts, and AI-driven acceptance optimization, all exposed through modular APIs. Its Intelligent Acceptance product performs over 60 million real-time optimizations per day and has unlocked more than $15 billion in incremental merchant revenue since its June 2023 launch — reaching the $10B milestone in approximately 15 months and the $15B milestone by October 2025.
The company targets high-volume enterprise merchants rather than SMBs. Its approximately 1,000+ enterprise merchants include Netflix, eBay, Klarna, Uber, Spotify, ASOS, Shein, Temu, Pinterest, HelloFresh, and Revolut. Sixty-three of those merchants each processed over $1 billion in annual volume in 2025 — Checkout.com's internal 'Billion Dollar Club' — up from 39 the prior year. Average system uptime runs at 99.999%, and roughly 95% of peak-period transactions clear in under one second.
Geographically, the US became Checkout.com's fastest-growing region (approximately 80% revenue growth in 2024) after securing a Georgia Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank (MALPB) charter in January 2026 that enables direct card network connections — a transformative step toward native US acquiring. APAC posted 71% TPV growth year-over-year. The company operates 20+ offices across six continents, including a new San Francisco office opened February 2025 and a Vilnius, Lithuania technology centre established January 2026 following its acquisition of euro stablecoin issuer Blue EMI. Net revenue grew over 30% for the second consecutive year in 2025, with the company also positioning for the emerging agentic commerce era — already live on Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), Visa Intelligent Commerce, and Mastercard Agent Pay.
What does Checkout.com offer?
Checkout.com offers a modular suite of payment infrastructure products spanning acquiring, issuing, fraud, identity, payouts, and agentic commerce integrations.
- Payment Acquiring· Core
- Intelligent Acceptance (AI optimization)· Core
- Flow (customizable payment UI)· Core
- Fraud Detection Pro (ML-based)· Risk & Security
- 3D Secure Authentication· Risk & Security
- Card Issuing (physical & virtual; $5B run rate Q4 2025)· Issuing
- Identity Verification (IDV)· Identity
- Payouts (170+ countries)· Payouts
- Checkout Business Account (multi-currency)· Treasury
- Marketplace & PayFac Solutions· Platforms
- Reporting & Analytics· Data
- Cross-border Payments (150+ currencies)· Global
- Agentic Commerce (Google UCP, Visa Intelligent Commerce, Mastercard Agent Pay)· Emerging
How does Checkout.com make money?
Checkout.com earns revenue through per-transaction processing fees using an interchange-plus pricing model, charging a percentage margin on top of network interchange rates. It targets exclusively high-volume enterprise merchants — competing on total cost of ownership and acceptance-rate improvements rather than on headline rate — and increasingly upsells value-added products like Intelligent Acceptance, Fraud Detection Pro, card Issuing, and IDV.
For standard merchants, the published rack rate is 0.95% + $0.20 per European card transaction and 2.90% + $0.20 for non-European cards — broadly similar to Stripe's standard pricing. Enterprise clients with significant volume unlock interchange-plus pricing at approximately 0.10%–0.40% + $0.08 per transaction, making Checkout.com highly cost-competitive at scale. There are no monthly platform fees or early termination fees, and enterprise contracts are negotiated individually based on volume, geography, and risk profile.
Beyond raw processing margin, revenue growth is driven by upselling adjacent products with higher margins. Intelligent Acceptance — credited with unlocking $15 billion in incremental merchant revenue since June 2023 through 60 million daily real-time optimizations — is a premium capability layered on top of core acquiring. Fraud Detection Pro, IDV, card Issuing (which reached a $5 billion processing run rate in Q4 2025), and Payouts are each accounted for separately and are central to the expanding revenue mix. In crypto, Checkout.com once powered roughly 80% of global crypto exchange volume, though diversification since 2022 has significantly reduced that concentration following client losses.
Net revenue is not publicly disclosed in exact form. Third-party estimates for 2024 range from $297M (Sacra, net revenue basis) to $488M (Latka, ARR basis), reflecting differing methodologies on take-rate calculation. The company reported net revenue growth above 30% for the second consecutive year in 2025, and BusinessCloud noted the company crossing a $1 billion revenue milestone threshold. With $300B+ in TPV in 2025, full-year EBITDA profitability above 10% adjusted margin, and a new Georgia banking charter enabling direct US card network connections, the business is profitable and self-sustaining — with no need for further dilutive external capital.
Who leads Checkout.com?
Checkout.com is led by its founder Guillaume Pousaz and a seasoned executive team drawn from payments, technology, and financial services, including new arrivals from Visa Europe (CFO) and veteran operators from Meta, Yext, and Adyen.
- Guillaume PousazFounder & CEO2012–presentSwiss-born serial payments entrepreneur who bootstrapped Checkout.com for seven years before its first VC round; prior ventures include NetMerchant and Opus Payments. Majority owner and deeply involved in key merchant relationships.
- Mariano AlberaChief Technology OfficerJoined 2020; CTO since Nov 2023Former CTO at Expedia B2B, OVO Energy, Thomas Cook, and Opodo; leads a 600+ person engineering organisation focused on leveraging ML and AI for payment optimisation.
- Meron ColbeciChief Product OfficerDec 2021–presentPreviously Head of Consumer Product at Meta's Novi fintech, SVP Product at SoFi, and Senior Director at PayPal. Leads product strategy including Intelligent Acceptance and agentic commerce roadmap.
- Jenny HadlowChief Operating Officer2021–presentJoined from Yext, where she opened the company's first international office and led revenue operations through its 2017 NYSE IPO. Oversees Revenue Operations, Merchant Operations, and Risk Operations.
- Philip SymesChief Financial Officer (interim)Dec 2024–presentTrained at PwC; 10 years as CFO at Visa Europe through its £13.7B acquisition by Visa Inc. (2006–2016); also held senior finance roles at Willis Towers Watson and Cambridge Education Group; most recently CFO at Redington.
- Bradley RissChief Commercial OfficerOct 2018–presentFormer Head of Business Development APAC at Adyen and senior BD roles at Digital River and GlobalCollect; leads global commercial strategy and enterprise growth. MA in Business Management from University of Edinburgh.
- Antoine NouguéChief Revenue OfficerCurrentOver a decade in payments and fintech; works alongside the CCO to oversee sales execution, relationship management, partnerships, and implementation globally.
- Emilie MathieuGeneral CounselCurrentOversees legal, compliance, and regulatory affairs; also oversees enterprise risk management and sits on the Board of Directors.
How do you contact Checkout.com's leadership?
Checkout.com uses a First.Last@checkout.com email format (confirmed by LeadIQ at 96% frequency). Published contacts include pr@checkout.com for media and yourpayments@checkout.com for general sales inquiries. Executive emails below follow the verified company pattern — no personal executive emails are publicly disclosed.
firstname.lastname@checkout.comHow much funding has Checkout.com raised?
Checkout.com has raised approximately $1.83 billion in equity across four disclosed rounds (Series A through D). Its peak valuation was $40 billion at the January 2022 Series D; after the fintech correction, a September 2025 employee share-buyback program set an internal valuation of $12 billion — a recovery from a $9.35 billion trough in 2023. The company has explicitly stated it has no current plans to go public.
Checkout.com bootstrapped profitably for seven years before raising any external capital — an unusual profile that shapes its capital discipline today. The Series A in May 2019 raised $230 million led by Insight Partners and DST Global at a $2 billion valuation, the largest Series A in European fintech history at the time. Fourteen months later, the $150 million Series B (June 2020, led by Coatue) tripled the valuation to $5.5 billion. In January 2021, Tiger Global led a $450 million Series C at a $15 billion valuation, making Checkout.com EMEA's most valuable venture-backed business.
The Series D in January 2022 raised $1 billion from Altimeter, Dragoneer, Franklin Templeton, GIC, Qatar Investment Authority, Oxford Endowment Fund, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Tiger Global, Coatue, DST Global, Blossom Capital, and Endeavor Catalyst, reaching a $40 billion valuation — briefly making founder Guillaume Pousaz worth roughly $12 billion on paper. However, rising rates and exposure to crypto client losses (FTX represented material revenue) caused sharp internal revaluations: $11 billion in December 2022, then $9.35 billion in 2023.
By September 2025, recovered financials — $300B+ in TPV (64% growth), net revenue growing 30%+ for the second consecutive year, EBITDA-positive — supported a new $12 billion internal valuation used for an employee share-buyback program. A second share buyback was completed within 12 months at the same $12B mark. In January 2025, the company officially stated it has 'no plans to go public,' and the company's return to profitability makes further external capital unnecessary. No Series E or debt facility has been announced as of mid-2026.
How did Checkout.com get here?
From bootstrapped Singapore startup to $300B-TPV global payments infrastructure company — and one of the most closely watched potential IPO candidates in European fintech — in under 15 years.
- 2009 / 2012Opus Payments founded; rebranded to Checkout.comGuillaume Pousaz establishes Opus Payments in Singapore in 2009; the company is reincorporated in the UK as Checkout.com in 2012 and operates profitably without external capital for seven years.
- May 2019Series A — $230M at $2B valuationEurope's largest-ever fintech Series A, led by Insight Partners and DST Global, ending seven years of bootstrapped operation.
- June 2020Series B — $150M at $5.5B; first acquisitionsCoatue leads the B round. Checkout.com acquires French startup ProcessOut and Australian firm Pin Payments, expanding routing and APAC capabilities.
- January 2021Series C — $450M at $15B valuationTiger Global leads the round with Greenoaks and all existing investors. Checkout.com becomes EMEA's most valuable venture-backed company.
- January 2022Series D — $1B at $40B valuationLargest round; investors include Altimeter, Dragoneer, Qatar Investment Authority, GIC, and Oxford Endowment. Funds earmarked for US expansion, marketplace products, and crypto/Web3.
- December 2022Internal revaluation to $11B following crypto correctionNo new external capital raised; internal valuation cut from $40B to $11B following the FTX collapse and the broader crypto winter, which wiped out significant revenue concentration. Options repriced to restore employee upside.
- March 2023Card Issuing product launchedCheckout.com launches virtual and physical card issuing, expanding from pure acquiring into the full payment lifecycle.
- June 2023Intelligent Acceptance launchedAI-powered acceptance optimization product launches, performing 60M+ daily real-time optimizations and going on to unlock $15B+ in incremental merchant revenue by October 2025.
- September 2025$12B internal valuation; return to EBITDA profitabilityEmployee share-buyback program launched at $12B valuation — a recovery from the $9.35B trough. Company reports full-year EBITDA profitability with >10% margins and $300B+ in 2025 TPV, up 64% year-over-year.
- January 2026Georgia MALPB charter approved; Blue EMI acquiredCheckout.com receives approval for a Georgia Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank (MALPB) charter, enabling direct US card network connections and native US acquiring. Simultaneously acquires Blue EMI, a Bank of Lithuania-licensed euro stablecoin issuer (MiCA compliant), and establishes a Vilnius, Lithuania technology centre.
- February 20262025 annual results: $300B TPV, full-year profitability, 2,000 staffGuillaume Pousaz publishes 2025 Annual Letter confirming $300B+ in TPV (64% YoY), net revenue growth >30% for second consecutive year, EBITDA margins >10%, and headcount grown 15% to 2,000. Company announces positioning for agentic commerce era via Google UCP, Visa Intelligent Commerce, and Mastercard Agent Pay integrations.
Who are Checkout.com's competitors?
Checkout.com competes primarily with Stripe, Adyen, and Worldpay at enterprise scale, and secondarily with Braintree/PayPal and regional processors. Together, Stripe, Adyen, and Checkout.com process a combined $4.2 trillion annually and represent the three market leaders widening the capability gap from the rest of the industry.
- StripeDeveloper-first platform with a far broader SMB and mid-market base (~1M+ merchants) and wider product ecosystem including Stripe Capital and Stripe Climate; Checkout.com wins on cost and authorization rate at very high enterprise volume.
- AdyenPublicly listed Dutch rival (AMS: ADYEN) processing $571B+ annually with ~4,500 enterprise clients; stronger omnichannel (unified online/in-store) and lower sales cost as a proportion of revenue (3% vs Checkout.com's 13%), but less customizable than Checkout.com's API-first stack.
- WorldpayLargest processor by volume ($1.7T+ annually) with 140+ country reach; strong in relationship management and legacy enterprise accounts, but losing technical ground to the API-native top-three.
- Braintree (PayPal)PayPal's developer-facing acquiring product with competitive volume-based pricing; strong in North America but limited direct acquiring outside the US and dependent on PayPal's broader product strategy.
- NuveiCanadian processor with strong crypto, gaming, and iGaming verticals; competes directly for the high-risk and digital-goods enterprise segment historically important to Checkout.com.
- RapydFintech-as-a-service challenger focused on emerging markets and alternative payment methods; less enterprise-hardened but aggressively expanding in APAC and LATAM.
Checkout.com — frequently asked questions
