Mollie raises €665m in Series C funding round
Mollie, one of the fastest-growing payment service providers in Europe, today announced the closing of €665 million (US$800m) in a Series C funding round, taking the total amount raised by the company to over €780 million (US$940m). The round was led by funds managed by Blackstone Growth (BXG), Blackstone’s growth equity investing business, and included EQT Growth, General Atlantic, HMI Capital and Alkeon Capital. TCV who led the Series B investment in September 2020 also participated in the funding round. The funding will fuel Mollie’s international expansion, team scaling and continued investment in product and engineering, helping the firm to realize its vision of becoming the most-loved payment service provider (PSP) in the world.
Launched in 2004, Mollie is one of the largest PSPs in Europe. Today, it serves more than 120,000 monthly active merchants of all sizes across the continent. In 2020, Mollie processed more than 10 billion Euros in transactions and is on track to handle more than 20 billion Euros during 2021. Mollie’s leading products, simple and transparent pricing and excellent customer service, alongside its no lock-in contracts, have driven rapid growth both during the pandemic and the months following relaxation of lockdown restrictions across Europe. Mollie counts Deliveroo, Gymshark, Wickey and Otrium as customers.
The round values Mollie at €5.4 billion (US$6.5bn) which, based on CBInsights data, suggests Mollie is now one of the top five most valuable privately-held fintechs in Europe, and one of the top 20 in the world.
“There’s something very special about Mollie. In the three months since I joined the team we’ve achieved so much: making preparations for a full launch in the UK, driving 600% growth in Germany and hiring an impressive set of team members and executives,” said Shane Happach, CEO, Mollie. “Over the past months, Mollie has been receiving a remarkable amount of interest from some of the world’s foremost fintech investors. In bringing on BXG, we believe we have an investor who can help Mollie in our next phase of growth. The involvement of our new group of investors demonstrates confidence in Mollie’s growth, strategy and product set.”
“Mollie is one of Europe’s most exciting high-growth businesses and is at the forefront of enabling next-generation payments for online SMEs across Europe. We are excited to partner with Mollie’s fantastic team and look forward to leveraging Blackstone’s capital, expertise and global network to unlock the company’s next phase of growth,” said Paul Morrissey, who leads European investing for Blackstone Growth. “This investment underlines Blackstone’s confidence in Europe as a place for high-growth companies to thrive.”
Today, Mollie has around 480 employees and plans to hire 300 new team members in the next six-to-nine months. Mollie is evaluating additional countries for expansion both within Europe and beyond. Mollie also plans to continue investing in its technology platform and expanding its product portfolio beyond payments into financial services for SMEs, following the arrival of new Chief Product Officer, Rogier Schoute.
