GoCardless opens NYC base to strengthen its North American expansion

London-based payment provider GoCardless this morning announced plans to open a new office in New York, its sixth location worldwide.

The New York office, led by GoCardless VP of banking operations Nanna Saito Nielsen, will support the company’s North American operations and growth—a market which grew 400 per cent for GoCardless in the last year.

GoCardless’s west coast office in San Francisco will remain responsible for leading the group’s US strategy under Andrew Gilboy, general manager for North America.

“The opening of our New York office signals the strength of our intent in the US. Following a successful start, we are now dedicated to creating the best payment infrastructure for our clients by expanding our US partner network and offering local operational support,” said Nielsen on the NYC office opening.

“This will enable us to better serve businesses across the country as the adoption of digital payment methods continues to accelerate.”

Along with its two US locations, GoCardless has other offices in London, Paris, Munich and Melbourne.

At the same time, GoCardless plans to ramp up hiring in 2021, growing its global headcount of 450 employees by two-thirds this year, and in North America, its headcount is set to tripe.

Before Christmas GoCardless reached a near-billion dollar valuation after it closed a $95m funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures at a $970m price tag.

As part of that round, GoCardless announced a major push into open banking payments, an expansion of its exiting suite of direct debit and recurring payments.

CEO and co-founder Hiroki Takeuchi said he believed this new form of payment was poised to “disrupt the payment landscape by introducing new, simpler and more secure ways of making bank-to-bank payments that will compete with the traditional card networks.”