Checkout.com to open office in Riyadh after raising $450 million

Checkout.com to open office in Riyadh after raising $450 million

Checkout.com, the UK-based payments company is expanding its presence in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) after securing a $450 million Series C funding round, tripling the company's valuation to $15 billion.

Founded in 2012 by Guillaume Pousaz, Checkout.com offers e-commerce players a one-stop-shop for payments - including managing financial transactions, processing payments and detecting fraud.

"We were the first global player to arrive in Mena back in 2013, and now we are doubling our operations in the region,“ says Sebastian Reis, executive vice-president of global e-commerce at Checkout.com. "2020 was an eventful year for us, and the recent funding rounds allow us to do what we have been doing so far but faster and more aggressively.“

The company is opening offices in Riyadh and "significantly growing“ its team in Dubai to localise customer support and onboarding. While still a small part of its business, the Middle East presents a growing opportunity for Checkout.com, where e-commerce has boomed over the past year.

According to the Connected Payments in MENAP report that was recently released by the company, Checkout.com saw more than 1,000 new merchant inquiries since Covid-19 hit the region, as an unprecedented number of businesses moved online to serve their customers. In