Blackstone-Backed Mollie Acquires UK Fintech GoCardless to Expand Recurring Payments
Dutch payments processor Mollie, backed by Blackstone, has acquired British fintech unicorn GoCardless in a deal that combines Mollie’s e-commerce gateway with GoCardless’s direct bank payment infrastructure. The transaction, expected to close imminently, follows a year-long process where GoCardless pursued a secondary share sale before pivoting to acquisition talks. This move positions Mollie to capture a larger share of the $2.5 trillion global recurring payments market, where subscription models drive 15% annual growth in transaction volumes.
GoCardless, founded in 2011, specializes in bank-to-bank transfers using schemes like ACH in the U.S., SEPA in Europe, and Bacs in the UK, enabling automated recurring collections for over 85,000 merchants including DocuSign and Xero. The platform processes 2 billion payments annually across 30 countries, with API integrations supporting real-time authorization and failure retries via machine learning algorithms that achieve 98% first-payment success rates. Mollie, processing €14 billion in transactions last year, gains GoCardless’s Instant Bank Pay product, which settles funds in under 60 seconds using open banking rails.
The acquisition aligns with Blackstone’s €300 million investment in Mollie in 2023, aimed at scaling cross-border capabilities amid Europe’s PSD3 regulations mandating faster settlements. GoCardless, valued at $2.1 billion in its 2022 funding round led by Salesforce Ventures, had raised $370 million total, with revenue exceeding $100 million in 2024 from 12% take rates on processed volumes. Integration plans include unified APIs for hybrid payment flows, reducing merchant onboarding from weeks to hours through OAuth 2.0 authentication.
For U.S. audiences, the deal intensifies competition in the $1.2 trillion ACH market, where GoCardless’s North American expansion since 2020 has captured 5% share among SaaS providers. Mollie’s entry could pressure incumbents like Stripe and Adyen, which rely on card networks with 2-3% fees versus GoCardless’s 1% for direct debits. Analysts at Jefferies project the combined entity could add €500 million in annual revenue by 2027, leveraging AI-driven fraud detection scoring 99.9% accuracy on anomalous patterns.
Regulatory scrutiny under EU merger rules focuses on data privacy, with both firms compliant to GDPR and CCPA standards for tokenized payment credentials. The transaction includes transferring GoCardless’s 500-person team to Mollie’s Amsterdam headquarters, preserving its London engineering hub for low-latency U.S. routing. This consolidation reflects broader fintech M&A trends, where 65 deals exceeded $100 million in 2025 per PitchBook data, driven by scale needs in fragmented banking ecosystems.
Mollie CEO Adriaan Mol stated the acquisition “accelerates our mission to simplify payments globally by embedding bank flows at the core of every transaction.” GoCardless CEO Hiroki Takeuchi added, “Joining Mollie unlocks seamless experiences for millions of customers, from subscription billing to payroll automation.” The partnership targets enterprise clients with multi-currency support for 100+ fiat pairs, reducing cross-border FX costs by 40% via embedded hedging.
In the U.S., where 70% of recurring payments still use cards per Federal Reserve data, the deal could spur adoption of cheaper direct debit alternatives, especially for gig economy platforms handling $500 billion in annual payouts. Early pilots with U.S. merchants report 25% cost savings on failed payment recoveries, using predictive models analyzing 50+ behavioral signals. As open banking evolves under CFPB rules, this acquisition fortifies defenses against legacy processors, ensuring resilient infrastructure for high-velocity commerce.
