London FinTech GoCardless has been sold to Dutch rival Mollie in a €1.1 billion (£920 million) deal.
More than 90% of the consideration will be paid in shares, with the remainder in cash.
The figure is around half the valuation achieved by the payments platform in its latest funding round in 2022, which featured Balderton Capital, BlackRock and Permira.
GoCardless was founded by CEO Hiroki Takeuchi (pictured), Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield and Matt Robinson in 2011. A few years later Takeuchi, its chief executive, was paralysed from the chest down following a cycle crash.
It finally achieved quarterly profitability this year, although it made a £34.5m pre-tax loss in 2024.
Mollie is one of Europe’s fastest-growing financial service providers. The combined company will serve more than 350,000 businesses – integrating card payments, local methods and bank payments into a single solution.
“We’re incredibly excited to join forces with Mollie,” said Takeuchi. “This deal brings together two highly complementary businesses that have built best-in-class products across Europe and beyond.
“By combining our expertise in card, bank and hyperlocal payments into one provider, we can better serve our customers, accelerate growth and raise the bar for the industry. It’s a win for European fintech and we’re confident that the new company will be greater than the sum of its parts.”
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Koen Köppen, CEO of Mollie, added: “Mollie’s mission has always been to make money management effortless. We were founded on the vision to eliminate financial bureaucracy for every business.
“We see that bureaucracy creates challenges, especially for businesses with recurring revenue. A card-only approach has its limits, leading to high costs due to failed payments and customer churn.
“GoCardless built the definitive solution to optimize this process with its global bank payment network. By bringing them into Mollie, we take a huge step towards fulfilling our vision and creating one complete platform for sustainable growth.”
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to be finalized mid 2026.