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You probably have not heard of Checkout, a digital payment processing company founded in 2012 in London. Apparently, though, investors keep an eye on the low-flying airline and like what they see. Checkout announced today that it has raised $ 230 million in Series A funds, valued at $ 2 billion, led by Insight Partners and DST Global, with the participation of Singapore Sovereign Wealth Fund (GIC). Blossom Capital, Endeavor Catalyst and other non-appointed strategic investors.
This is the first corporate tour of the company; it is also one of the largest series in the A series ever organized by a European company.
What makes Checkout so special that investors feel compelled to make big checks? In a sea full of Fintech startups, it's hard to know at first what differentiates it – or if investors are simply spying on a huge opportunity, especially given the company's recent revenue figures.
Checkout helps companies, including Samsung, Adidas, Deliveroo and Virgin, among others, to accept a range of payment types in their online stores around the world. According to the WSJ, the fees for these services also add up. Checkout's European operations generated gross revenues of $ 46.8 million and a profit of $ 6.7 million in 2017, information collected through Companies House, the Registrar of Companies in the United Kingdom.
Checkout also plays on two major trends that seem to affect all boats: the boom of online shopping and the growing number of companies using online payments. Not surprisingly, investors invested more than four times in last year's payment business in 2017 ($ 22 billion, according to Dow Jones VentureSource data cited by the WSJ).
Nor is it surprising that the public payment start-ups are doing well, including the global payment company Adyen, which went public on Euronext in June of last year and whose shares have most evolved in a sense. Indeed, the company, valued at $ 2.3 billion by investors in 2015, is now valued at nearly $ 21 billion.
Although Checkout Series A is amazing in size, according to Dealroom data, it is not the largest for a European company. Among the other giants, the British biotech company Immunocore closed with Series A financing of $ 320 million in 2015. In 2017, another British fintech, OakNorth, a digital bank focused on lending to small and medium-sized businesses, raised $ 200 million in series. A funding. (He then raised about $ 850 million.)
More recently, TradePlus24, a Swiss-based Fintech company based in Switzerland, which handles accounts receivable from small and medium-sized businesses against non-payment, also raised a substantial amount: $ 120 million in Series A financing. Credit Suisse and insurance broker Kessler are among its backers.
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