Checkout founder now worth £15bn as profits soar in the pandemic

An online payments company has become the UK’s most successful start-up after being valued at £30billion by international investors.

Based in Fitzrovia, London, Checkout raised £730million in a funding round that makes it worth more than fintech upstart Revolut, which was valued at £24billion last July.

The company was founded a decade ago and processes online payments for websites and customers including Deliveroo, fashion website The Hut Group and furniture seller Heal’s.

Checkout’s success confirms London’s position as the tech capital of Europe. But the UK has a challenge to keep it in London as the firm has previously hinted that it would list in the US.

Checkout is majority-owned by Swiss national Guillaume Pousaz who at 40 years of age has a paper fortune worth £15billion. 

He is a resident of Dubai, where his wife Laure Pousaz and three children live, but spends most nights at a five-star hotel in London.

Checkout’s £30billion valuation is more than double what it was worth a year ago. 

Those taking part in the latest round include New York investment firm Tiger Global, asset manager Franklin Templeton and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC.

Investors’ appetite for payments companies has been turbocharged by the pandemic as consumers shop online. 

Every time a user makes a transaction, Checkout takes a small fee for processing it, as well as a flat fee.

As a result, it is processing billions of dollars every year in more than 150 currencies. Checkout has 1,700 employees globally.