SumUp Raises €590M at Reduced Valuation of €8B

Mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) startup SumUp raised €590 million at a valuation of €8 billion, a significant drop from its €20 billion valuation earlier this year.

Marc-Alexander Christ, SumUp CFO, told Financial Times that the company decided to move forward with the fundraise as a way to instill a sense of confidence and give “peace of mind to investors, that even during a black swan event . . . we can still raise money.”

See also: SumUp Seeks Fresh Capital at $22B Valuation

In January, SumUp was seeking to raise $562 million at a valuation of $22 billion, which would have made the company one of the U.K.’s most valuable startups, PYMNTS reported at the time.

Co-founded in 2012 by CFO Marc-Alexander Christ, COO Petter Made, Jan Deepen, and Stefan Jeschonnek, and headquartered in London, SumUp offers physical card readers and manages payments in online stores. The company now has over 3,000 staff supporting almost 4 million merchants in 35 countries worldwide, having launched the Peru market in 2022.

Related: PayPal Rival SumUp Snags Fivestars For $317M

Recent acquisitions include Goodtill, Tiller, and Fivestars. The acquisition of Fivestars gave SumUp access to Fivestars’ 70 million consumer members and 12,000 small businesses, which drives $3 billion in sales and 100 million transactions annually, PYMNTS reported last November.

The funding round, the startup’s first since 2017, was a combination of debt and equity and was led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities with participation by BlackRock, Centrebridge, Crestline, and others. The new capital brings the company’s total funding raised to date to $1.6 billion.

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Christ told FT it was easier to be valued at €8 billion and he was “happier.” He pointed out that the value is still 20 times more than it was five years ago.

“It definitely makes life easier,” he said. “I can very comfortably say the €8bn is a true and fair valuation, because that’s the price people put on the company in the worst of markets. I don’t think the price will ever be any lower than that.”