Guillaume Pousaz, CEO and founder of payment platform Checkout.com, speaking at the annual Web Summit nology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022.Horacio Villalobos | Getty ImagesLONDON — Fin unicorn Checkout.com is giving staff a way of cashing in their s: buying them out.The London-headquartered payments platform said Friday that it plans to launch a buyback initiative for employees to "vide them with a path to liquidity."The buyback gram is based on a new internal valuation of $12 billion, Checkout.com said.
Although internal, the valuation marks a significant drop from its last fundraising round — Checkout.com was valued at $40 billion in a $1 billion funding round in 2022.The company previously lowered its internal valuation to $11 billion in 2022, and then again to $9.35 billion in 2023.
Checkout.com says it regularly monitors the value for its employees in its incentive gram.The fin competes with payment service viders such as Stripe, Adyen and PayPal.
The company cesses billions of dollars in transactions every year for the s of eBay, IKEA and Sainsbury's. Get a weekly round up of the top stories from around the world in your inbox every Friday.
Such sales have ven an increasingly way for startups to offer longtime employees and other investors liquidity, particularly as companies stay private for longer amid a multi-year decline in initial public offerings.Checkout.com says it is now on track to exceed a target of 30% core net revenue growth this year and is forecasting $300 billion in annual e-commerce payment volume."We are relentlessly focused on growth and innovation, particularly with the impact of AI and the expected rise of agentic commerce," said Guillaume Pousaz, the company's CEO and founder, in a press release.Several other private fins have opted to allow employees to sell s in recent months.In February, Stripe announced a tender offer allowing early investors and employees to sell s at a valuation of $91.5 billion.
Revolut, meanwhile, earlier this month offered staff the chance to sell s on the secondary market at a $75 billion valuation.WATCH: CNBC and Statista name the top UK fins of 2025watch now2:3202:32CNBC and Statista name the top UK fins of 2025Squawk Box Europe