The venture capital arms of Google and Salesforce.com Inc. are investing in UK-based payment startup GoCardless, which has raised an additional US $ 75 million to finance its expansion.
The financing is headed by Adams Street Partners, GV (formerly known as Google Ventures) and Salesforce Ventures, GoCardless said in a statement. Existing investors Accel Partners, Balderton Capital, Nocion Capital and Passion Capital have also participated.
They have not transcended the conditions of valuation of the agreement. Sky News initially reported on Salesforce’s interest.
GoCardless, founded in 2011, allows companies to set up recurring bank payments for customers over the Internet, instead of using a credit or debit card. The company said it currently processes $ 10 billion in annual payments.
GoCardless is betting that it can get hold of a larger share of the global $ 2 billion annual payments market at a time when companies are increasingly turning to subscription models. For its part, card networks like Visa and MasterCard are planning to increase the fees they charge to US merchants for processing transactions.
About 18 percent of global payments are recurring, said GoCardless. “The way these payments are charged around the world is quite inefficient,” said Hiroki Takeuchi, co-founder and CEO of GoCardless, in an interview.
Takeuchi said the company’s platform allows companies to receive direct debit payments from customers instead of using different procedures for payments in different geographies, or even between different banks in the same country.
The company, which employs 290 people, said in the statement that it would use the new funds to open offices in Europe, Asia and North America. Takeuchi said the company would open an office in the United States this year. It currently has offices in the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Germany.
GoCardless also said it would launch new features for customers, including processing currency transactions, instant settlement and using machine learning to increase transaction success rates.
Takeuchi said companies should be able to receive direct debit payments in their local currency, regardless of where their customers are located, and that this foreign exchange function “will be introduced soon.”