Mollie Completes GoCardless Acquisition to Form European Financial Powerhouse

Mollie has completed its acquisition of GoCardless, creating a unified financial services powerhouse serving over 350,000 businesses across more than 30 markets. For fintech professionals, this consolidation signals a major shift toward integrated payment ecosystems, merging Mollie’s card and local payment expertise with GoCardless’s dominant bank payment technology to simplify cross-border merchant operations.

What was announced

The acquisition brings GoCardless under the Mollie group, though it will continue to operate as "GoCardless, a Mollie company." Koen Köppen, CEO of Mollie, leads the combined group, while GoCardless co-founder Hiroki Takeuchi remains at the helm of the GoCardless brand. The deal creates a comprehensive payment suite that integrates Mollie’s card processing and local payment methods with GoCardless’s Pay by Bank solution, which is currently available across 38 countries.

The strategic rationale centers on consolidating financial operations. By bringing payments, accounts, and business financing into a single "financial home," the group aims to reduce the integration and reconciliation burdens for growing businesses that typically juggle multiple providers for cards, direct debits, and financing. This approach addresses a common pain point for merchants who currently maintain separate relationships for different payment rails and credit facilities.

The merger combines Mollie’s deep European roots—supported by teams in 12 cities across the European Economic Area (EEA)—with GoCardless’s established footprint in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Both entities enter the deal from a position of financial stability; Mollie achieved EBITDA profitability in 2024 and reported €147 million in net revenue in 2025. GoCardless reached its first EBITDA-positive quarter in the summer of 2025. While the integration will be phased to ensure continuity for existing customers, the long-term objective is a unified platform covering online and in-person payments alongside business financing.

"This acquisition is a major milestone for GoCardless. When we started in 2011, everyone was building on cards and bank payments took a backseat. We backed our belief that it’s the best way to get paid - and spent fifteen years proving it. It’s been a great journey so far, but I’m most excited about what comes next: By combining with Mollie, we can now bring over a decade of bank payment expertise to a far wider range of businesses. Together, we're building a platform that covers online and in-person payments, accounts and business financing, giving customers a single, stronger financial partner across Europe and beyond."

Hiroki Takeuchi, CEO of GoCardless.

The companies involved

Mollie is a prominent European payment service provider that has built its market presence by focusing on localized financial solutions. This includes native language support and localized onboarding across the EEA. The company is led by Koen Köppen, who serves as Chief Executive Officer and brings experience from his previous tenure at Klarna. Mollie has positioned itself as a "financial home" for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), expanding beyond simple payment processing into broader financial services like business financing and accounts.

GoCardless, founded in 2011, is a global leader in bank payments, specializing in direct debit and more recently, Open Banking-powered "Pay by Bank" technology. The company has spent over a decade advocating for bank-to-bank transfers as a superior alternative to traditional card networks for recurring and one-off payments. Before this acquisition, GoCardless operated as an independent entity, building a significant international network that spans North America and Asia-Pacific. The company has recently focused on strategic partnerships to automate the billing-to-cash cycle and expand the reach of its Open Banking solutions to small and medium-sized businesses globally.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely tracked the expansion of GoCardless’s ecosystem and its push into Open Banking. In July 2026, we covered how GoCardless and Sage Expand Partnership to Launch Pay by Bank for SMBs, a move that integrated bank payments directly into accounting workflows. This followed our June 2026 report on how GoCardless and Intelligent Billing Partner to Automate the Billing-to-Cash Cycle for Telecoms and MSPs, highlighting the company’s focus on reducing manual intervention in complex billing environments. These developments underscored GoCardless's commitment to bank-based payment methods prior to its merger with Mollie.

What this means

This acquisition is a definitive move toward the "super-app" equivalent for merchant services, placing significant pressure on fragmented payment providers who offer only niche solutions. By merging card-acquiring with a global bank-payment network, the Mollie-GoCardless group is challenging the dominance of traditional banks and card-centric giants. The industry must now consider whether the future of merchant loyalty lies in the breadth of the financial stack—including accounts and lending—rather than just transaction fees. The success of this merger will likely depend on how seamlessly the group can unify two distinct payment rails into a single, frictionless onboarding experience for global merchants.