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Mollie became the third largest fintech unicorn in Europe
The Mollie payment project held another round of financing, as a result of which it received $800 million. Thanks to this, its valuation rose to $6.5 billion, making the startup the third largest unicorn in the fintech sector in Europe.
Mollie was founded in Amsterdam by Adrian Moll in 2004. It offers products for integrating payments into various sites and making transactions with minimal labor. The main investor of the new round was the company Blackstone Growth, in addition General Atlantic, Alkeon Capital and others invested in the European startup as well.
Despite the fact that Mollie has existed for quite a long time, it got a real jump in popularity during the pandemic. The reason for this was the global shift to the e-commerce segment. This year, the startup is projected to make payments totaling 20 billion euros. This figure is 100% higher than in 2020, when transactions for 10 billion euros were processed. Monthly services are used by 120 thousand active clients, including such well-known corporations as Acer, Unicef and Guess. Every day this figure grows by 400-500 new users. Experts note that despite the end of the pandemic, the number of payments on the Internet is not declining, while their volume is growing, which is associated with an increase in consumer spending. If previously they were at the level of 10%, now it is 15-20%.
Mollie said the investment will be used to grow its business. It plans to expand its product range to meet customers’ needs and keep up with changing market trends. In addition, the startup wants to expand beyond Europe to new regions such as Asia, Brazil and Latin America. However, experts warn that entering other markets means huge competition with the players already represented there. For example, 50% of the world segment of electronic payments is occupied by 10 companies, the remaining 5 thousand participants account for the remaining 50%.
Now Mollie services are aimed first of all at the representatives of small businesses. For them, the startup offers a working capital service, corporate programs, and the ability to manage expenses. And unlike some competitors, Mollie has no intention of expanding through acquisitions and mergers with other companies. The management of the startup says it wants to develop its project more organically, adding staff as needed. It now has 480 employees. Mollie does not intend to invest huge sums in advertising its services, as long as their popularity is growing thanks primarily to “word of mouth”.