GoCardless

GoCardless is a fintech company that specialises in bank payments including recurring payments, Direct Debit processing and Open Banking. GoCardless is headquartered in London.

GoCardless provides a payment gateway that enables businesses to set up and manage payments, subscriptions and invoices with automated payment processing.

As of 2022, GoCardless reportedly processes $30 billion worth of transactions annually and operates in the UK, European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

History
GoCardless was founded in 2011 by Hiroki Takeuchi, Matt Robinson, and Tom Blomfield, who were students at Oxford University at the time. The company's initial focus was on providing a platform for small and medium-sized businesses to collect recurring payments via direct debit. In 2012, the company received £1.5 million in funding from investors, including Y Combinator, Google Ventures, Salesforce and Accel Partners.

In 2013, GoCardless launched its service in the United Kingdom, and the company expanded into Europe in 2014, launching in France, Germany, and Spain. In 2017, the company raised $22.5 million in a Series D funding round, bringing its total funding to $47.2 million. In 2018, GoCardless launched its service in the United States with an office opening in San Francisco. In 2020, the company expanded into Australia and New Zealand and raised $95 million, becoming a startup unicorn.

In 2022 the company raised $312 million and was valued at $2.1 billion.

Partnerships and acquisitions
In 2018, GoCardless partnered with QuickBooks, a maker of cloud-based accounting software, to offer customers direct debit as a payment option. The partnership provided QuickBooks' customers with a way to collect recurring payments from their customers.

In 2020, GoCardless announced a partnership with Zuora, a cloud-based subscription management platform. The partnership aimed to simplify the subscription billing process for Zuora's customers by providing them with access to GoCardless' global direct debit network.

In July 2022, GoCardless announced that it had signed an agreement to acquire the Open Banking provider Nordigen for an undisclosed sum.

In March 2024, it was announced GoCardless had acquired the payment services company, Sentenial (operating globally under the Nuapay brand), from its Australian parent-company, EML Payments for an undisclosed amount.

Products and services
The company offers an API that enables businesses to integrate GoCardless into their own websites or applications, as well as pre-built integrations with accounting and billing software such as Xero, QuickBooks, and Zuora. The company aims to provide an alternative to traditional payment methods, such as credit and debit cards, which can be costly for businesses to manage.

In addition to its payment processing services, GoCardless provides a variety of tools to help businesses manage their payments, including real-time payment tracking and reporting, payment failure alerts, and customer insights.

In 2020 the company launched a service called GoCardless for Salesforce, which allows businesses to collect payments and manage their customer data within Salesforce's customer relationship management (CRM) platform.