Technology 3 min read

Salesforce and Alphabet Invest $75-million USD in GoCardless

Salesforce and Alphabet Invest $75-million USD in GoCardless

Large companies often invest in smaller startups and incubators as we saw with Google last year. But not only did Alphabet, Google’s parent company, invest in this startup — Salesforce did, too.

This isn’t a SaaS or even a SaaS for SaaS. It’s a recurring payments company that’s actually been around since its founding in 2011.

But what is GoCardless and why did they just get a round of $75-million USD funding?

Steady Growth Leads to Stable Success

Many startups think that they need to rocket to success soon after launching. But, as GoCardless shows, the “slow burn” can be just as profitable and rewarding.

Founded in 2011, they’ve received a few funding rounds, but nothing as significant as their latest.

2017 showed record annual growth for their U.K. sector, as well as strong traction in new markets. With their latest round of Series E funding, they plan to expand into more markets including the U.S.

But what does GoCardless do you might ask? Well, you’re not alone in that. So much so that the company created a video for their clients on how to explain their service to people.

In a nutshell: GoCardless enables enterprise-level businesses to use recurring bank payments.

GoCardless designed their payment options for one-off transaction types to avoid the normal pitfalls that recurring payment systems incur such as expired credit cards.

CEO and founder Hiroki Takeuchi says that this is in service to a greater vision of global banking:

“Thanks to the support of our investors we can now open up our global network and payments platform to more businesses across the world, delivering on our mission to take the pain out of getting paid, so that businesses can focus on what they do best.”

Plans for Expansion Pose Threats in Established Rivals

GoCardless will invest heavily in this new venture with a team of about 100 people. The expanding B2B market includes bolstering sites in Germany, Australia, and France, as well as expanding into the U.S.and opening an office in Spain.

Though Salesforce and Google remain key investors for this latest round of funding, GoCardless’ previous investors remain active including:

GoCardless serves clients with large platforms including the Financial Times and The Guardian. But they also serve tech firms including Sage and Box. In fact, the startup processes transactions for more than 40,000 clients which add up to about $10-billion USD in transactions annually.

The company will have to compete with Square and Stripe (among others) once it comes to the U.S.

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Juliet Childers

Content Specialist and EDGY OG with a (mostly) healthy obsession with video games. She covers Industry buzz including VR/AR, content marketing, cybersecurity, AI, and many more.

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