Recurring payments firm GoCardless has raised $95m in its Series F funding led by BainCapital Ventures, in a round that values the company at $970 million.

The FinTech said that the round means it is closing in on coveted ‘unicorn’ status (tech companies valued at more than $1 billion).

It pledged to use the funding to fuel its continued investment in Open Banking and enable the company to continue with its stated aim to “challenge the dominance of credit cards in instant payments.”

The company said the fundraise follows 46 per cent year-on-year growth for GoCardless and brings the total raised to-date to $240m.

The company said merchants will be able to access both instant Open Banking technology and bank debit as part of their recurring payments offering, maximising cash flow and minimising churn by pulling funds automatically from payers at a lower cost than cards.

GoCardless will also use the funding to expand its offering into the adjacent e-commerce market to launch a simple and secure way of making bank-to-bank payments as a lower-cost alternative to cards.

Digital service companies such as Docusign and subscription economy players such Brompton Bike Hire and Bridgestone’s MOBOX are existing customers of GoCardless’ recurring payments model.

The company processes US$18bn+ of payments annually across more than 30 countries.
The company also expanded its technology offering with Success+, a payments intelligence tool powered by machine learning, to help businesses optimise their retry strategy when payments fail.

Hiroki Takeuchi, chief executive and co-founder of GoCardless, said: “This funding round demonstrates the strength of the business and the confidence both our customers and investors have in GoCardless.”

He added: “We believe that Open Banking is set to disrupt the payment landscape by introducing new, simpler and more secure ways of making bank-to-bank payments that will compete with the traditional card networks. Our investment in Open Banking innovation will create a uniquely valuable payment offering - continuing to provide our customers with the best way to collect recurring payments.”

Share Story: