The founders of British fintech company GoCardless stand to make a significant financial windfall after the payments company agreed to be taken over by Dutch rival Mollie in a deal worth €1.05bn (£920m).
The deal is expected to be a big win for GoCardless boss Hiroki Takeuchi and his co-founder Tom Blomfield, one of Britain’s best-known tech entrepreneurs and co-founder of digital bank Monzo.
Founded in London in 2011 by Takeuchi, Blomfield (pictured) and fellow Oxford graduate Matt Robinson, GoCardless has grown into one of Europe’s leading account-to-account payment platforms, serving more than 100,000 businesses and processing over $130 billion in transactions annually.
The deal comes almost a decade after Takeuchi suffered a life-changing cycling accident in London that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He returned to work within a few months and has since led the company through rapid international expansion.
“I have a lot to thank GoCardless as a company, our investors and our team,” Takeuchi said after the announcement. “We are not doing this to get out of the company – we are doing this because we believe in the future of the merger.”
More than 90 percent of the purchase price will be paid in shares, the rest in cash. Takeuchi will remain in a senior position within the combined group following completion of the transaction, which is expected to take place in mid-2026, subject to regulatory approvals.
Although GoCardless only reached profitability earlier this year and reported back into the black in the three months to June, the company still posted a pre-tax loss of £34.5m for 2024. Nonetheless, the takeover marks one of the most significant British fintech exits in recent years.
The agreed valuation is below the $2.1 billion price tag given to GoCardless during its last major fundraising round in 2022, when the company raised $312 million from investors including Balderton Capital, BlackRock and Permira. Fintech valuations across the sector have since been depressed by higher interest rates and a tougher funding environment.
Blomfield, who left GoCardless in 2013, co-founded Monzo two years later and is now a partner at Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator. While GoCardless’s exact ownership structure is unclear, both he and Takeuchi are believed to retain significant shares.
The acquisition creates a combined payments group serving more than 350,000 businesses across Europe and positions the combined company as a major challenger in the rapidly evolving fintech landscape.
