Fintech PR
Checkout.com Triples Valuation to $15bn with $450m Series C Fundraise, Accelerating Global Expansion
Checkout.com, the leading Connected Payments™ solutions provider, today announced that it closed a $450 million Series C fundraising round. This gives the business a post-money valuation of $15 billion, making it the fourth largest fintech globally and EMEA’s most valuable venture-backed business(1), as the business continues to expand across the globe.
The Series C was led by Tiger Global Management, LLC, a New York-based technology investor that partners with dynamic entrepreneurs operating market-leading growth companies, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Spotify, ByteDance, and JD.com. Greenoaks Capital also joined the round along with participation from existing investors Insight Partners, DST Global, Coatue Management, Blossom Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, and Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund GIC.
Guillaume Pousaz, CEO and Founder of Checkout.com said: “Payments affect everything from the customer journey to a business’s ability to enter new markets or launch new products. This latest fundraise reflects our market-leading position and the size of our aspirations as we accelerate in our mission to empower merchants to build better products, drive more revenue and create innovative business models by reimagining interactions with financial services. Our new investors bring a wealth of experience across payments, technology and scaling companies – crucial knowledge for the next stage of our growth, as we continue to build our vision for the future of Connected Finance™.”
Investing in the Future of Payments
Research from McKinsey & Company highlights the scale of the payments opportunity, with total global payments revenue reaching just under $2 trillion in 2019(2). Meanwhile a recent report from Checkout.com in partnership with Oxford Economics(3) revealed the scale of the challenge that many merchants face, with $20.3 billion lost to false declines in payments in 2019 alone and more than $12.7 billion handed from first choice merchants to their competitors. Additionally, customers who gave up on their intended online purchase completely resulted in more than $7.6 billion of missed opportunity for merchants. Checkout.com addresses these issues by giving enterprise businesses the most proactive tools to drive best-in-class performance and more control through advanced data features, fraud management tools, and comprehensive reporting.
The fundraise comes as the global economy looks beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. While many organizations have historically relied on one-size-fits all payment systems, the need to drive improved performance, gain transparency across payments and extract valuable information from data is increasingly becoming a competitive differentiator. Checkout.com’s cloud-based unified platform enables merchants to manage payins and payouts at scale, while achieving better performance and improved acceptance rates globally. Leading ecommerce businesses such as Farfetch, Mango, Victoria’s Secret, L’Occitane and The Hut Group depend on Checkout.com for a fast, reliable, adaptable and safe platform that gives granular access to the data and pricing behind every transaction.
While Checkout.com’s profits from current operations will continue to be reinvested to power future growth, the new funding will be used to further grow its balance sheet and drive new innovative opportunities. With a total of $830 million raised within the last two years, Checkout.com’s readily available cash represents one of the strongest balance sheets across all global fintechs. This further strengthens the company’s resilience as a regulated entity in numerous markets and as the financial partner to its merchants. It also allows for continued strategic investments and product developments, like the Checkout.com Payouts solution which saw exponential growth over the last year.
Checkout.com Unveils North American Headquarters
In addition to today’s Series C funding announcement, Checkout.com is announcing the opening of its New York City office. The company first launched in the U.S. in 2017 and has operations in San Francisco. Together, the bicoastal offices will power the organization’s ability to meet the growing demand in the U.S. for Connected Payments™ solutions, as Checkout.com increases its focus on serving U.S.-based enterprises in domestic, global and cross-border payments. The company is also announcing an office in Denver. Globally, Checkout.com will hire an additional 700 people across all its locations in 2021.
Checkout.com’s transformative approach to payments and payouts has garnered its reputation as the most trusted technology provider behind many of the most valuable fintechs and cutting-edge businesses, including Klarna, Revolut, Transferwise, Coinbase, and eToro. With a platform that can support both best-performing global payments and payouts, Checkout.com has become the backbone of the world-beating progressive business models, among the leading fintechs, streaming services, and marketplaces.
Scott Shleifer, Partner at Tiger Global Management said: “We are excited to partner with Guillaume and Checkout.com as they continue to build an innovative global payments and financial services platform trusted by leading internet companies. We believe the shift to digital commerce is still in the early stages, and Checkout.com’s focus on developing a best-in-class technology platform has positioned them to be a leader in the industry for years to come.”
In June 2020, Checkout.com announced its Series B which valued the business at $5.5bn and was led by technology fund Coatue Management. In 2020, it also announced the acquisitions of ProcessOut and PinPayments, as well as a strategic investment in Thunes.
Fintech PR
DAZN ADVANCES GLOBAL EXPANSION WITH ACQUISITION OF FOXTEL, A LEADING AUSTRALIAN SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA GROUP
- Milestone deal for DAZN’s position as the global home of sport.
- This acquisition establishes DAZN’s sports platform in Australia, one of the world’s most attractive sports markets.
- Foxtel Group will leverage DAZN’s global reach, industry-leading technology and extensive content portfolio to further enhance the viewing experience for Australian sports fans.
LONDON, NEW YORK, and SYDNEY, Dec. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — DAZN, a world-leading sports entertainment platform, has today announced an agreement to acquire Foxtel Group (‘Foxtel’) from its majority shareholder News Corp and minority shareholder Telstra at an enterprise value of US$2.2 billion, subject to regulatory approval.
The acquisition establishes DAZN as a leader in sports entertainment in Australia – a highly attractive sports market – while also expanding DAZN’s global footprint and enhancing the group’s standing as the global home of sport. The addition of Foxtel to DAZN brings the Group’s pro-forma revenues towards US$6 billion and provides the additional content, expertise, and expansion opportunities to accelerate DAZN’s growth trajectory.
Foxtel is one of Australia’s leading media companies, with 4.7 million subscribers, who will benefit from DAZN’s extensive portfolio of sports content, platform technology, and global reach.
From its beginnings as Australia’s original pay-TV innovator, Foxtel has evolved to become a digital and streaming leader in sports and entertainment and the proposed transaction positions Foxtel for continued expansion as a digital-first, streaming-focused business. Foxtel will maintain its local character, led by the CEO, Patrick Delany, and his world-class management team.
DAZN, a sports streaming platform with a truly global reach, is committed to growing the global audience for domestic Australian sports across the 200 territories in which it is available.
Under the terms of the transaction, News Corp and Telstra will become minority shareholders in DAZN, enabling them to retain an interest in Foxtel.
Shay Segev, Chief Executive Officer of DAZN, said: “Australians watch more sport than any other country in the world, which makes this deal an incredibly exciting opportunity for DAZN to enter a key market, marking another step in our long-term strategy to become the global home of sport. Foxtel is a successful business that has undergone a remarkable digital transformation in recent years, and we are confident that our global reach and relentless pursuit of innovation will continue to drive the business forward and ensure long-term success.
“We are committed to supporting and investing in Foxtel’s television and streaming services, across both sports and entertainment, using our world-leading technology to further enhance the viewing experience for customers. We are also committed to using our global reach to export Australia’s most popular sports to new markets around the world, and we will continue to promote women’s and under-represented sports.
“We’re looking forward to working closely with Patrick Delany and his team, as well as News Corp and Telstra as shareholders in DAZN, to realise our ambitious vision for the future of sport entertainment.”
Siobhan McKenna, the Chairman of Foxtel, said the agreement with DAZN was international recognition of the transformation of Foxtel from an incumbent pay TV operator to a sports and entertainment digital and streaming leader. “Over the last seven years the Foxtel team, with the strong support of News, have achieved an extraordinary turnaround in an intensely competitive environment.”
Foxtel Group CEO, Patrick Delany, said: “Today’s announcement is a natural evolution for the Foxtel Group, having reinvented the company over the past five years as Australia’s most dynamic technology-led streaming company.
“Kayo and Foxtel provide Australian sports fans with access to the best Australian and international sport and shows, including AFL, NRL and Cricket with 4.7 million subscribers.
“We are excited by DAZN’s commitment to the Australian market. They are experts in the sports media business and can play a significant role in supporting Foxtel as the business grows its streaming capabilities, bringing a bigger and better service to customers across entertainment, news and sport. They are a perfect match for us as we look toward this next era of growth.
“We have been grateful for the support of News Corp while we reimagined the future of Foxtel. In 2019, when we merged Foxtel and Fox Sports we had many people questioning our future.
“After launching Kayo later in 2019 and BINGE in 2020, today we are the largest Australian-based streamer of sport and entertainment, we have stabilised our Foxtel base and launched Hubbl to help consumers find all the streamed content they love all in one place. This wouldn’t have been possible without the support and encouragement of News Corp.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
About DAZN
As a world-leading sports entertainment platform, DAZN streams over 90,000 live events annually and is available in more than 200 markets worldwide.
DAZN is the home of European football, women’s football, boxing and MMA, and the NFL internationally. The platform features the biggest sports and leagues from around the world – Bundesliga, Serie A, LALIGA, Ligue 1, Formula 1, NBA, Moto GP, and many more including the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
DAZN is transforming the way people enjoy sport. With a single, frictionless platform, sports fans can watch, play, buy, and connect. Live and on-demand sports content, anywhere, in any language, on any device – only on DAZN.
DAZN partners with leading pay-TV operators, ISPs and Telcos worldwide to maximise sports exposure to a broad audience. Its partners include Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Sky, Movistar, Telenet, Vodafone, and many more.
DAZN is a global, privately-owned company, founded in 2016, with more than 3,000 employees. The Group generated $3.2bn in revenue in 2023, having grown its annual revenues by over 50% on average from 2020 to 2023, through diverse revenue streams comprising subscriptions, advertising, sponsorship, and transactional. For more information on DAZN, our products, people, and performance, visit www.dazngroup.com.
About Foxtel
The Foxtel Group is one of Australia’s leading media companies with 4.7 million subscribers. Its businesses include subscription television, streaming, sports production and advertising. The Foxtel Group is owned 65% by News Corp and 35% by Telstra.
The Foxtel Group’s diversified business includes Fox Sports, Australia’s leading sports production company, famous for live sports and shows with the best commentators and personalities. It is also the home of local and global entertainment content and continues to be the partner of choice for the widest range of sports and international content providers based on established, long-term relationships, growing streaming audiences, and position as the largest Australian-based subscription television company.
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/dazn-advances-global-expansion-with-acquisition-of-foxtel-a-leading-australian-sports-and-entertainment-media-group-302337997.html
Fintech PR
President Emmerson Mnangagwa met this week with Zambia’s former Vice President and Special Envoy Enoch Kavindele to discuss SADC’s candidate for the AfDB
President Mnangagwa, who is SADC Chairperson, reaffirmed his own country’s and SADC’s enthusiastic support for Zambian candidate Sam Maimbo
LUSAKA, Zambia, Dec. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Special Envoy Kavindele released the following statement following the meeting:
“I am elated to witness the growing success and momentum of Sam Maimbo’s candidacy to become the next President of the African Development Bank. I am filled with gratitude to our friends across both SADC and COMESA for their continued support and good wishes.
Sam has garnered such wide consensus due to his being uniquely qualified to deliver the transformative change and empowerment our continent needs. Sam’s 30 years in development work is defined by driving outcomes, improving processes, and investing in people. The AfDB needs a hands-on leader who is laser focused on delivering results and who is unafraid of making tough decisions in order to best serve our continent. Sam is that leader. Sam has the track record and experience to drastically enhance the pace, scale, and impact of the Bank’s work in service of the people and governments of Africa.
Our region has a proud history of supporting fellow Southern Africans. For example, we all recall Lusaka’s role in hosting the African National Congress’ headquarters during the dark days of Apartheid oppression.
It therefore gives me no pleasure to observe my South African brothers, who have themselves leant on Zambia’s steadfast friendship over many decades, fail to rally behind both SADC and COMESA’s chosen candidate for the AfDB. Africa’s urgent economic development challenges demand transformational leadership at the AfDB, it is all of our responsibility to put forward the best candidate for the job. This is not the time or place for a government to act with narrow self-interest, we all must act in the continent’s and AfDB’s best interest.
I thank Sam Maimbo for his lifelong service to our entire continent, and I am eager to witness his enormous impact as President of the AfDB.”
LONDON, Dec. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Heimdal Security shares a practical holiday cybersecurity checklist, offering expert insights to help businesses safeguard against cyber threats this festive season.
With reduced staffing, remote work setups, and a surge in online shopping creating heightened vulnerabilities, this guide offers actionable tips to enhance business security.
Going beyond basic advice, the checklist also highlights the most common holiday scams and features videos showcasing real-life examples of Christmas-themed cyber scams and effective prevention strategies.
Key Tips to Protect Businesses This Holiday Season:
- Strengthen endpoints: Ensure devices are updated with antivirus and endpoint protection software; consider Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and application whitelisting.
- Prepare for phishing spikes: Train staff to identify suspicious emails, enforce robust email filters, and establish protocols for reporting unusual activity.
- Secure remote access: Mandate VPN usage, monitor unusual logins, and deactivate inactive accounts temporarily.
- Segment and shield networks: Isolate sensitive areas, deploy DNS security and advanced firewalls, and maintain full visibility over network traffic.
- Apply timely patches: Regularly update all systems and test patches in a controlled environment to minimize disruptions.
- Mitigate supply chain risks: Assess vendors thoroughly and limit their access to essential systems.
- Have a response plan ready: Tailor incident protocols for the holidays, create an on-call rotation for the IT team, and enable rapid action against suspicious activity.
“ Cybercriminals thrive on holiday distractions, but with proactive measures like phishing training, secure endpoints, and network segmentation, businesses can stay ahead of potential threats,” said Alex Panait, System Administrator at Heimdal Security.
Common Holiday Scams That Businesses Should Watch For:
Cybercriminals often tailor their tactics to exploit the festive season. The most common scams include:
- Spear phishing: Emails disguised as holiday bonuses or event invitations that steal credentials or spread malware.
- Malicious holiday E-Cards: Festive greetings that contain links deploying ransomware or spyware.
- Fake E-Commerce sites: Fraudulent websites offering discounts to steal payment information.
- Insider threats: Distracted or disgruntled employees mishandling or exploiting sensitive data.
- Corporate travel scams: Fake booking platforms targeting business travelers.
- Business email compromise (BEC): Fraudulent requests for urgent wire transfers during year-end financial rushes.
For more, read the full article here or watch the video on YouTube to see how these threats unfold and learn actionable prevention strategies.
About Heimdal:
Established in Copenhagen in 2014, Heimdal® empowers CISOs, security teams, and IT administrators to improve their security operations, reduce alert fatigue, and implement proactive measures through a unified command and control platform.
Heimdal’s award-winning cybersecurity solutions span the entire IT estate, addressing challenges from endpoint to network levels, including vulnerability management, privileged access, Zero Trust implementation, and ransomware prevention.
For further press information:
Madalina Popovici
Media Relations Manager
[email protected]
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/stay-cyber-safe-this-holiday-season-heimdals-checklist-for-business-security-302337465.html
-
Fintech6 days agoFintech Pulse: Your Daily Industry Brief (Synapse, Shenzhen Institute, Visa, AutomatIQ, MeridianLink)
-
Fintech5 days agoFintech Pulse: Your Daily Industry Brief (Revolut, Bestow, Advyzon, Tyme Group, Nubank)
-
Fintech3 days agoFintech Pulse: Your Daily Industry Brief (Chime, ZBD, MiCA)
-
Fintech6 days agoAsian Financial Forum returns as region’s first major international financial assembly in 2025
-
Fintech7 days agoNASDAQ-Listed LYTUS Appoints Visionary Leader Sai Guna Ranjan Puranam as COO (Lytus Healthcare) and Group CTO (Lytus Technologies) to Revolutionize Healthcare and Technology
-
Fintech PR2 days agoAccording to Tickmill survey, 3 in 10 Britons in economic difficulty: Purchasing power down 41% since 2004
-
Fintech4 days agoAirtm Enhances Its Board of Directors with Two Strategic Appointments
-
Fintech PR2 days ago
President Emmerson Mnangagwa met this week with Zambia’s former Vice President and Special Envoy Enoch Kavindele to discuss SADC’s candidate for the AfDB