Mollie's acquisition of GoCardless represents a bold move in the European fintech space. By acquiring the UK-based payment company for €1.05 billion, the Dutch payments provider signals its ambition to tackle inefficiencies in the payment infrastructure businesses face, especially those scaling internationally.
What Happens When Two Complementary Giants Join Forces?
Mollie has long been a favorite among European SMEs for its accessible card payment solutions, while GoCardless gained recognition for its direct-debit and open banking capabilities. Together, these companies aim to create a single platform serving 350,000+ businesses by combining card payments, local payment methods, and bank-based solutions.
This means that Mollie is not merely extending its reach, it’s addressing ongoing struggles with payment fragmentation. Companies juggling multiple systems for subscriptions or cross-border transactions have faced higher costs and operational headaches. This deal could be the defining moment that reduces payment inefficiencies for European businesses, particularly for subscription-based models and recurring revenue streams.
Key Statistics
- Mollie currently supports transactions worth billions annually across 30 countries, while GoCardless has an established global bank payment network.
- Direct-debit transactions used by GoCardless reduce failed payments compared to cards by 70%, according to internal data.
- Together, the companies target European SMEs, a sector consisting of over 22 million small and medium enterprises, accounting for nearly 99% of all companies in Europe.
Challenges Women Entrepreneurs Face With Payment Systems
My journey as a startup founder has taught me that payment systems often fail to serve smaller businesses fairly, especially female-led ones. According to a study, only 12% of fintech founders were women in Europe by 2022. High costs due to failed payments, fewer attractive financing options, and systems overly designed for major corporations leave SMEs, especially those founded by women, at a disadvantage.
The merger between Mollie and GoCardless might change this narrative by streamlining operational processes. Having access to strong infrastructure like bank-direct systems and cross-border tools can help female entrepreneurs who are passionate about subscription-based businesses avoid churn and secure recurring incomes.
Lessons I Learned as a Founder About Deals Like This
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Know Your Industry: I’ve worked in both deeptech and financial services, and mergers like Mollie-GoCardless highlight the importance of identifying synergies that directly address client pain points.
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Take Risks with Reason: Looking at Mollie’s growth trajectory, it shows when to double down on expanding your market instead of diversifying in directions that dissipate focus.
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Never Settle for Fragmentation: If small businesses could use a platform combining bank payments, card methods, and hyperlocal payment tools, they would save huge resources managing fragmented systems.
As a solopreneur who bootstrapped startups in education and the CAD sector, I’ve seen the value of solving fragmented issues for customers. Whether it was creating one tool for STEM learning via Fe/male Switch or applying the same principle to IP protection in my earlier work, I can attest that simplifying operations drives scale.
A Useful Guide for Entrepreneurs Tackling Fintech
If you’re raising or expanding into payments as a European entrepreneur, use this acquisition as inspiration. Here’s how:
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Start Small With Clear Solutions: Mollie began as a simple payments company growing steadily before branching confidently into broader systems.
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Collaborate With SaaS-Focused Providers: Businesses like Mollie demonstrate how well API-driven payment systems scale when integrated with SaaS platforms.
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Focus on Retention: If building a subscription model, prioritize tools like GoCardless’s direct-debit infrastructure to lower your churn rates.
Avoidable Mistakes
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Overcomplicating Payment Stacks: Many founders integrate two or three systems without noticing the processing fees hidden under them.
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Ignoring Local Methods: Hyperlocal solutions like Dutch iDEAL or Swiss Twint drive user satisfaction. If you’re skipping them, your bounce rate could rise.
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Not Picking Tools That Grow With You: Always ask whether the product you’re onboarding supports scaling, either geographically or technologically.
What Does This Mean for Female-Led Startups?
As someone passionate about supporting women-led businesses in STEM and fintech, this deal matters. Female entrepreneurs in payment-heavy sectors, like subscription SaaS or e-commerce, stand to benefit from easier systems designed to handle scaling without complex technical setups. Creating community projects via non-profits and incubators like GoCardless does could bridge the gender funding gap many women face.
Conclusion
Mollie’s acquisition deal brings excitement for European SMEs, especially those run by female founders. With streamlined tools for card, local, and direct-debit payments, this bold step promises smoother operations, sustainable growth, and fewer failed payments for small businesses. If you’re thinking about how this could help your business, learn more through Mollie's and GoCardless’s websites or join fintech-focused accelerators that highlight such solutions.
Let’s keep building systems that empower the founders who need them most, proving your capabilities is only half the battle. Finding infrastructure serves as the other half.
FAQ
1. Why did Mollie acquire GoCardless?
Mollie acquired GoCardless to tackle inefficiencies in payment systems, particularly for businesses scaling internationally. The combined platform will integrate card payments, local payment methods, and bank payment solutions to serve over 350,000 businesses. Learn more about Mollie’s strategy
2. How much was the acquisition deal worth?
The deal was valued at €1.05 billion, with approximately 90% paid in shares. Read more about the deal’s structure
3. What businesses will benefit from the Mollie-GoCardless integration?
The newly combined entity will cater to over 350,000 businesses, focusing on reducing payment fragmentation, particularly for subscription-based and recurring revenue businesses in Europe. Explore their target market
4. What payment tools will the new platform offer?
The platform will provide access to card payments, local payment methods like iDEAL and Twint, and GoCardless’s direct-debit and open banking solutions. Learn about the integrated payment tools
5. How will this deal impact European SMEs?
By addressing payment system fragmentation, the deal will help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) streamline operations, reduce transaction costs, and optimize cash flow from recurring payments. Check the impact on SMEs
6. What inefficiencies does this acquisition address?
The acquisition aims to solve payment inefficiencies by bundling fragmented systems into a unified platform. This will particularly reduce churn and failed payments for recurring revenue businesses. Understand the inefficiencies solved
7. Who are the key executives involved in this acquisition?
Koen Köppen (CEO of Mollie) and Hiroki Takeuchi (CEO of GoCardless) have emphasized their combined expertise in creating a streamlined fintech platform. Meet the executives
8. What role will GoCardless's direct-debit capabilities play in the merger?
GoCardless's direct-debit functionality will provide a reliable alternative to card payments, reducing failed payments by 70% and supporting subscription-based models. Learn about GoCardless’s advantages
9. What investors backed this acquisition?
The deal was supported by major investors like Blackstone, Accel, Balderton Capital, Permira, and BlackRock, showing confidence in the European payments market. See the list of investors
10. When will the acquisition be finalized?
The acquisition is expected to close by mid-2026, pending regulatory approval. Check the expected timeline
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp's expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the "gamepreneurship" methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.
About the Publication
Fe/male Switch is an innovative startup platform designed to empower women entrepreneurs through an immersive, game-like experience. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic "without any funding and without any code," this non-profit initiative has evolved into a comprehensive educational tool for aspiring female entrepreneurs.The platform was co-founded by Violetta Shishkina-Bonenkamp, who serves as CEO and one of the lead authors of the Startup News branch.
Mission and Purpose
Fe/male Switch Foundation was created to address the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurship space. The platform aims to skill-up future female tech leaders and empower them to create resilient and innovative tech startups through what they call "gamepreneurship". By putting players in a virtual startup village where they must survive and thrive, the startup game allows women to test their entrepreneurial abilities without financial risk.
Key Features
The platform offers a unique blend of news, resources,learning, networking, and practical application within a supportive, female-focused environment:
- Skill Lab: Micro-modules covering essential startup skills
- Virtual Startup Building: Create or join startups and tackle real-world challenges
- AI Co-founder (PlayPal): Guides users through the startup process
- SANDBOX: A testing environment for idea validation before launch
- Wellness Integration: Virtual activities to balance work and self-care
- Marketplace: Buy or sell expert sessions and tutorials
Impact and Growth
Since its inception, Fe/male Switch has shown impressive growth:
- 5,000+ female entrepreneurs in the community
- 100+ startup tools built
- 5,000+ pieces of articles and news written
- 1,000 unique business ideas for women created
Partnerships
Fe/male Switch has formed strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. In January 2022, it teamed up with global website builder Tilda to provide free access to website building tools and mentorship services for Fe/male Switch participants.
Recognition
Fe/male Switch has received media attention for its innovative approach to closing the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. The platform has been featured in various publications highlighting its unique "play to learn and earn" model.
