Global payments provider Checkout.com is to acquire Australian fintech Pin Payments, founded in 2013 by Grant Bissett – currently the CEO at Pin – and Dominic Pym, co-founder of the Bendigo Bank digital arm Up Banking.
Pin Payments aims "to support Australian entrepreneurs in the region to process online payments".
In a blog post announcing the deal, Bissett said the "key to our growth is our approach to make accepting card payments for merchants as straightforward as possible."
The firm has signed up over 12,000 small to medium-sized businesses across the country, developing technology such as a streamlined onboarding process, which Pin said reduces time to market "from weeks to days".
The Pin Payments platform supports major online players such as WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce and Magento, and is integrated with business platforms such as Xero, and therefore is able to take advantage of existing technology infrastructure.
"In Checkout.com, we found a partner who shares a similar approach to solving problems for businesses with innovative financial technology," Bissett wrote. "With Checkout.com, we are excited to provide our merchants with improved payments performance and international growth opportunities."
At first glance, the acquisition brings two similar businesses together – except that the UK-based Checkout.com, licensed as a payment institution by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, suddenly moved into unicorn status last year.
Forbes reported in May 2019 that Checkout.com – which started life in 2009 as Opus Payments before "evolving" into Checkout.com in 2012 – had raised US$230 million in a Series A funding round, giving it a valuation of around US$2 billion.
The fintech platform allows companies to process and accept cross-border payments from a variety of sources including credit and debit cards, online banking, PayPal, Apple Pay and other eWallets. It's a direct rival to Dutch payment firm Adyen, Forbes observed at the time.
Among the Checkout.com clients listed by Forbes was the currency exchange outfit TransferWise.
The deal brings a bigger, better cross-border service to Pin Payments’ 12,000 small business merchants through the Checkout.com unified acquiring footprint.
On the other side of the transaction, though, Checkout.com was cagey as to its motivation. Guillaume Pousaz, founder and CEO of Checkout.com said via media release: "Australia is a key market for our business. The acquisition of Pin Payments represents our investment to serve Australian entrepreneurs with world-class technology and a truly global acquiring network."
When asked to expand further on what else it stood to gain, Checkout.com told Banking Day via email that the company has been supporting global brands to process payments in the Australian market since 2018.
"Since then, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in businesses interested in expanding to Australia and others interested in improving their in-country payment operations.
"The acquisition of Pin Payments allows us to bring Australian merchants our world-class acquiring performance and technology while localising our global offering at speed, utilising a talented team with a robust working knowledge of the nuances of the Australian payment and banking sectors," was all the firm would disclose.
The terms and conditions of the deal "will not be disclosed," Checkout.com said.
This marks the second