According to Sifted, Dutch fintech Mollie is acquiring UK payments startup GoCardless in a deal worth €1.1 billion. The companies confirmed the acquisition today, which was first reported by Sifted back in August. GoCardless, founded in 2011 by Hiroki Takeuchi, Matt Robinson, and Tom Blomfield, had raised over $600 million and was last valued at $2.1 billion in 2022. The deal is expected to be finalized by mid-2026 and will merge their customer bases to serve a total of 350,000 businesses. This allows Mollie to add GoCardless’s specialty in bank and direct debit payments to its own portfolio.
The Strategy Behind The Deal
So, what’s really going on here? This is a classic case of two companies trying to build a one-stop-shop for business payments. Mollie is big in card and “hyperlocal” payment methods across Europe. GoCardless, on the other hand, built its whole business on facilitating direct debits—you know, those recurring bank payments for subscriptions and invoices. By combining, they can offer a merchant literally every way to pay. That’s powerful. But here’s the thing: the €1.1 billion price tag is a far cry from GoCardless’s $2.1 billion valuation from just two years ago. That tells you a lot about the pressure fintechs are under to show a path to real profit, not just growth.
Profitability Pressure And Timing
And that pressure is the key context. GoCardless CEO Hiroki Takeuchi told Sifted back in February that the company was pushing to reach profitability by the end of this year. That’s a tough climb for a company that’s raised hundreds of millions. Sifted also reported that GoCardless had been shopping itself around since the start of the year, with Swedish rival Trustly even being the frontrunner before walking away. So Mollie is getting a major strategic asset, but they’re arguably buying it at a moment of need. The 2026 closing date is also weirdly far out—basically two years from now. That suggests there’s a ton of regulatory scrutiny to get through, especially with a UK company being bought by a EU one post-Brexit. It’s a big bet on the future of consolidated payment platforms.
