Checkout.com axes 230 staff as UK sales slip after ties cut with Binance – UKTN

One of the UK’s most valuable fintechs has cut hundreds of jobs, UKTN understands, after suffering a fall in revenue following the loss of one of its biggest customers.

London-based payments processor Checkout.com, whose valuation hit a peak of $40bn in 2022, posted a 13% fall in UK processing transactions in 2023 to $204m, figures recently disclosed to Companies House show.

The company said the revenue fall was “primarily driven by the termination of a large merchant initiated by the company.” Checkout did not specify the name of the merchant, but this is thought to relate to the loss of crypto exchange Binance, with whom it parted company in the summer of 2023. Binance threatened legal action in response.

The fintech’s gross profits, which fell 23% to $57m, were also put down to the loss of a large merchant.

Checkout.com’s chief product officer, Meron Colbeci, has since said that crypto payments were “not a focus” for the company, adding: “Currently, crypto represents about under four per cent of our overall volume. If we get distracted, if we try too many things, I think it takes away from the core business.”

Since its $40bn valuation, the company’s value was cut by 75%, before a further 15% cut to $9.35bn in 2023.

Checkout.com’s accounts, which were filed three months after the statutory deadline, show the company reorganised its UK operations during 2023 in what is known as an Asset and Business Transfer Agreement, in which staff and intellectual property were moved from one UK entity, Checkout Ltd, to another, Checkout Technology Limited.

That saw the total employee headcount rise substantially at Checkout Technology and fall at Checkout Ltd. But overall, the combined headcount across the two entities fell by 233, or 18%, to 1,083.

Checkout.com’s global parent, Checkout Payments Group Limited, is headquartered in Jersey, an offshore tax haven with limited corporate disclosure requirements. As such, UKTN was unable to obtain revenue figures for the company’s operations outside the UK.

Checkout.com founder Guillaume Pousaz, who launched the fintech in 2012, has seen the company’s success propel him into the ranks of the richest entrepreneurs in the UK, with a net worth of $7.8bn according to Forbes.

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