Dutch payments provider Mollie has signed a definitive agreement to acquire UK-based GoCardless for €1.1 billion, creating what the companies are calling Europe's most comprehensive payment platform.
The deal, structured primarily through stock with a small cash component, will unite two complementary fintechs serving a combined customer base of over 350,000 businesses. The transaction represents one of the largest European fintech acquisitions of 2025 and marks Mollie's first major acquisition after expanding into seven new European markets this year.
GoCardless specializes in bank-to-bank payments, enabling businesses to collect recurring payments like subscriptions and memberships through direct debit rather than credit cards. The company, led by well-known UK fintech figure Hiroki Takeuchi, processes over $130 billion in payments annually across 30+ countries and has built connectivity to more than 2,500 banks through open banking infrastructure.
Mollie, backed by Blackstone and EQT, focuses on card payments and local payment methods for European SMEs, processing tens of billions of euros in transaction volume each year. The company competes with global players like Stripe, Adyen, and PayPal, as well as legacy providers like JPMorgan.
The strategic rationale centers on addressing a persistent challenge for businesses: fragmented payment infrastructure that drives up costs and complexity, particularly for companies with recurring revenue models. By combining Mollie's card payment expertise with GoCardless's bank payment network, the merged entity aims to offer a unified solution that reduces payment failures, lowers transaction costs, and improves cash flow.
Koen Köppen, Mollie's CEO, explained that businesses with recurring revenue face significant challenges with card-only approaches, including high costs from failed payments and customer churn. He said GoCardless built the definitive solution to optimize this process with its global bank payment network, and bringing them into Mollie represents a major step toward creating one complete platform for sustainable growth.
The combined platform will offer several key capabilities:
Unified payment acceptance across cards, bank payments, and local methods like iDEAL (Netherlands), Satispay (Italy), and Twint (Switzerland)
Reduced involuntary churn for subscription businesses through more reliable bank payment options
Embedded payments for SaaS platforms, allowing them to integrate both card and bank payments through a single solution
Simplified international expansion with localized onboarding and integrations
Comprehensive financial services including Mollie Capital for financing, fraud monitoring, and analytics
Takeuchi, GoCardless's co-founder and CEO, characterized the deal as bringing together two highly complementary businesses with best-in-class products. He expressed confidence that combining their expertise in card, bank, and hyperlocal payments will enable better customer service, accelerate growth, and raise industry standards.
The transaction comes amid a broader fintech valuation reset since pandemic-era peaks. GoCardless, which achieved profitability and was valued at $2 billion in 2022, is backed by Balderton Capital, Accel, Permira, and BlackRock. Mollie was valued at approximately $6.5 billion in 2021.
The combined entity will be valued at roughly €3 billion and employ over 1,700 people. Both companies emphasized their commitment to service continuity and localized customer support throughout the integration process, which will be conducted in phases.
The deal requires regulatory approval and is expected to close by mid-2026. A GoCardless spokesperson indicated it was too early to comment on potential workforce implications.
BofA Securities and Lazard served as financial advisors to GoCardless, with Linklaters providing legal counsel.