GoCardless joins unicorn club after sealing $312m funding round

One of London’s first fintech success stories has become the latest UK tech unicorn, after sealing a $312m funding round.

GoCardless, which was co-founded in 2011 by Tom Blomfield,Hiroki Takeuchi and Matt Robinson, now has a valuation of $2.1bn, following the funding round.

The funding round was led by investment heavyweight Permira, which has also backed Klarna and software businesses including Clearwater Analytics.

BlackRock Private Equity Partners also took part in the funding round in the fintech, which offers a range of payment services.

Before this latest Series G funding round GoCardless, which has offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Paris, Munich, and Melbourne, has raised around $217m, according to data provider CrunchBase.

It last raised funds in December 2020 when it raised $95m was valued at $970m and its investors then included Bain Capital.

GoCardless, which says it processes more than $25bn in transactions a year, says the funding will be used to speed up its presence in open banking through expanding its products and moving into new markets.

The fintech has ambitions to become “the world’s leading network for direct bank payments”.

GoCardless, which works with over 70,000 firms around the world, including Klarna and TripAdvisor, last year launched an open banking feature, called Instant Bank Pay, which is integrated directly into its global payment platform.

The move marked its first concert step in its open banking strategy.

Hiroki Takeuchi, co-founder and CEO of GoCardless, said: “The rise of open banking presents a once-in-a-generation shift, one that will change the way payments happen all over the world. 

“I am delighted to have partners like Permira and BlackRock Private Equity Partners on board, with their global footprint and strong expertise in tech, to support us in building a direct bank payment network that lets payments flow freely, without cards, expiration dates or extra costs."

Alberto Riva, Principal at Permira, added: “We believe GoCardless is uniquely positioned to become a global champion in account-to-account payments through leveraging."

GoCardless also announced that Michael Rouse, former chief commercial officer, Klarna, will join GoCardless’ board of directors, and Koen Köppen, chief technology officer at Klarna and board Member of Mollie, will join as an independent director.