GoCardless builds a global payments network and platform that enables businesses to collect recurring and one-off payments directly from customers' bank accounts using direct debit and open banking. The company launched Instant Bank Pay to collect one-off bank‑to‑bank payments via open banking and has accelerated open banking product development. GoCardless processes over US$30 billion of payments annually and serves more than 70,000 businesses worldwide. It has expanded headcount by 85% since its last funding round in December 2020 and says its valuation has more than doubled since then. GoCardless has partnerships with companies including Klarna and PayPal and plans to broaden its focus to enable both recurring and one‑time payments while opening its bank‑pay network to other payment service providers. The business operates from the UK with additional offices in Australia, France, Germany and the United States. GoCardless builds a global recurring payments network that uses direct debit to collect recurring bank payments from customers. It is combining open banking-enabled, instant bank-to-bank payments with its existing direct debit platform to offer merchants faster, more secure options while retaining debit's reliability and lower cost than cards. The company plans to accelerate its open banking strategy and expand into the adjacent e-commerce market with a lower-cost alternative to card payments. GoCardless says it already holds the required FCA permissions and has processed a variable recurring payment via open banking in a prior test; debut open-banking products were slated for the first half of 2021. Financially, the company reported 46% year-on-year growth and raised a $95M Series F, bringing total funding to $240M and valuing the company at just over $970M. It has also launched a US debit payments solution and opened a San Francisco office to support expansion. GoCardless, founded in 2011 and led by co-founder and CEO Hiroki Takeuchi, builds a global recurring bank-debit payments network for businesses. The company processes transactions for around 40,000 businesses and has nearly 300 employees, with a product team of about 100. It operates from its London HQ and has offices in France, Australia and Germany, and plans to open new offices across EMEA, APAC and North America. GoCardless is investing heavily in product development, working on features such as currency conversion, instant settlement, and smarter payment tooling that may use open banking to check funds or set optimal payment dates. The company positions itself as a one-stop shop for businesses that need to collect recurring and variable payments internationally. It recently raised $75M in a Series E to fund its global expansion and product roadmap. GoCardless operates a bank-to-bank payments network that enables recurring Direct Debit and cross-border transfers across the U.K., Eurozone and Sweden. The company targets subscription businesses and SaaS platforms that need reliable recurring payments that don’t expire like cards. It offers an API and off-the-shelf integrations with over 100 partners, including Xero, Sage and Zuora, and counts customers such as Sage, Thomas Cook, Box and The Guardian. GoCardless processes over $4bn in transactions across more than 30,000 organisations in the U.K. and Europe and is not disclosing revenue. Founded in 2011 and an early Y Combinator alum, the company pivoted early away from group payments to focus on recurring payments. The startup plans to use new funding to expand into more countries, with Australia and Denmark coming soon. GoCardless offers a platform that lets businesses set up and accept bank-to-bank (Direct Debit) recurring payments as an alternative to card payments. The product targets subscription-based commerce and any business reliant on recurring payments, reducing failure rates tied to lost, stolen, or expired cards. GoCardless processes £1 billion in payments annually (up from £500 million in July) and reports 16,000 merchants using its platform. Customers include major brands such as Thomas Cook, The Financial Times, and TripAdvisor alongside SMEs. The company has expanded operations into Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands in addition to the U.K., France and Germany. GoCardless cites its banking and regulatory relationships plus automated anti-fraud and AML capabilities as key defensive advantages, and plans further international expansion and increased sales and marketing spend.

Total raised

$529M

Funding rounds

8

Latest round

Series G

Latest activity

Feb 2022