Following Klarna’s massive valuation drop in July, Checkout.com is now Europe’s most valuable startup, with a valuation of $40bn.
But Guillaume Pousaz, Checkout.com’s founder and CEO, says occupying that top spot doesn’t really matter to him — and he isn’t fazed by public valuation tumbles.
“Valuation is an investor component. I’m a founder, so I just care about building, about net revenue growth and margin,” Pousaz said during a Q&A at Web Summit earlier today.
“I care about where my revenue is going and that’s it.”
Valuation priorities
The London-headquartered fintech was last valued at $40bn when it raised $1bn in January — a 166% uplift on the $15bn price tag it scored a year earlier.
The business would likely not attract such a hefty valuation today, Pousaz hinted on stage. “We can look at public markets for a benchmark — valuations are mostly half of what they were last year. But I don’t care at all,” he said.
However, the numbers Pousaz does care about are mostly looking good. He said the company was continuing to sign on new customers and sell more products to existing ones — a process he was confident would continue in the long term.
“We operate for ecommerce, where there are essentially three big players — we stand against the likes of Barclays and JP Morgan, and we still have a small share. But my view is that we will overtake them.”
He admitted that the crypto side of the business — Checkout.com began offering payments in the stablecoin USDC through a partnership with crypto security business Fireblocks in June — had taken a hit. “This year is not as good as last on the crypto side of things, but that’s just a small part of our business,” Pousaz said.
Revenues are only available for Europe and the latest that have been published are for 2020. They stood at $253m — a 73% boost from 2019.
According to LinkedIn, Checkout.com now has almost 2,000 employees, up from 1,500 this time last year.
In no rush to IPO
So, when can investors expect Checkout’s valuation to provide a healthy return on investment? Pousaz indicated that this won’t be happening any time soon.
“I raised my Series A in May 2019, so I don’t have any pressure to go public,” he said.
Amy O’Brien is Sifted’s fintech reporter. She authors Sifted’s fintech newsletter and tweets from @Amy_EOBrien.
