Mollie Bolsters Payments Offerings With GoCardless Acquisition

Dutch financial services provider Mollie is acquiring UK bank payment company GoCardless.

The deal, announced Thursday (Dec. 11), is designed to create a single provider of card payments, local methods and bank payments for more than 350,000 businesses.

“Businesses scaling internationally or building recurring revenue models face a persistent challenge: fragmented payment infrastructure that increases costs and complexity,” the companies said in a news release.

“By combining forces, Mollie and GoCardless will give businesses access to an unmatched suite of tools from a single partner, designed to solve these problems and fuel growth.”

The release noted that the combined company will allow larger businesses to consolidate their European payment stack, while smaller operations get access to enterprise-grade tools. It will also allow businesses to offer “reliable bank payments” as well as cards, thus reducing payment failures, lowering transaction costs, and improving subscription model cash flow.

“Mollie’s mission has always been to make money management effortless. We were founded on the vision to eliminate financial bureaucracy for every business. We see that bureaucracy creates challenges, especially for businesses with recurring revenue,” Mollie’s CEO Koen Köppen said.

“A card-only approach has its limits, leading to high costs due to failed payments and customer churn. GoCardless built the definitive solution to optimize this process with its global bank payment network. By bringing them into Mollie, we take a huge step towards fulfilling our vision and creating one complete platform for sustainable growth.”

The announcement follows a report from August that Mollie was in talks to purchase GoCardless as the latter company explored a variety of acquiring options.

The companies say the integration of GoCardless’ offerings into Mollie’s platform will be carried out in a “thoughtful, phased manner.” The transaction, subject to closing conditions such as regulatory approval, is expected to become final in mid-2026.

GoCardless said earlier this year that it had reduced losses in the wake of a 20% reduction of its workforce, while also shifting some staff to Eastern Europe.

“During the last quarter of the previous financial year, management undertook an exercise to turn its focus to achieving profitability within the next few years,” said CEO Hiroki Takeuchi.

The company’s deal is happening as open banking continues to enjoy widespread popularity in GoCardless’ home country, with nearly a third of the UK’s adult population — more than 15.6 million people — now using these services.