Mollie said on September 1, 2026, that it had closed its acquisition of GoCardless, bringing card acceptance and direct debit under one acquirer. The combined group says it serves more than 350,000 businesses in more than 30 markets. The UK press puts the price at €1.1 billion. When the deal was announced in December 2025, the two companies said more than 90% of it would be paid in shares.
Mollie brings card acceptance, local European payment methods, a business account, and financing. GoCardless adds direct debit and account-to-account payments, including its Pay by Bank product, available in 38 countries, plus an established presence in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Mollie CEO Koen Köppen leads the group. GoCardless keeps its brand as “GoCardless, a Mollie company,” under co-founder Hiroki Takeuchi.
Cards and direct debit differ in cost and in payer protection
The two rails work in opposite ways. A card payment runs on authorization. At the moment of purchase, the merchant queries the issuing bank, which approves or declines within a few hundred milliseconds. The transaction then goes through clearing before settlement to the acquirer. Pricing is a percentage of the amount, because the interchange and scheme fees charged by Visa and Mastercard are percentages too. The cardholder can later dispute the charge, which triggers a chargeback.
Direct debit rests on a mandate, an authorization the payer gives once that lets the creditor pull funds on each due date. GoCardless describes the service as merchant-initiated and notes that, unlike a standing order, it lets the merchant vary the amount and frequency. Collections follow the calendar of the relevant scheme, such as Bacs in the UK, and are never instant. Its pricing reflects the fact that no card network sits in the middle. In exchange, the payer has a separate right to a refund under the UK’s Direct Debit Guarantee. Pay by bank payments are covered by neither chargebacks nor the Direct Debit Guarantee.
| Card acceptance | Direct debit | |
|---|---|---|
| Payer authorization | Each transaction | Once, through a mandate |
| How the payment completes | Authorization, clearing, settlement | Collection on the scheme’s calendar |
| Cost structure | Percentage of the amount | Per transaction, outside the card networks |
| Payer recourse | Chargeback through the issuer | Refund under the guarantee |
Subscription merchants could move customers from card to mandate
A software company that bills monthly typically juggles two contracts, two reconciliations, and two dunning processes. Customers who sign up online mostly pay by card, which takes seconds to enter. Direct debit wins over time, because no expiration date breaks the chain of collections. With both rails at one provider, a merchant can move a customer from one to the other: open the relationship on a card, then switch to a mandate once the subscription sticks.
A price paid mostly in stock, at half the 2022 valuation
Neither company disclosed a price at closing. The €1.1 billion figure comes from the UK press. When they announced the deal in December 2025, Mollie and GoCardless said more than 90% of the consideration would be paid in Mollie shares and the rest in cash. Neither confirmed those terms at closing. If they held, GoCardless shareholders, including Balderton Capital, BlackRock, and Permira, are receiving mostly stock in the combined group rather than cash. The price is roughly half the valuation GoCardless reached in its 2022 funding round.
Mollie stakes out a third model next to Adyen, Worldline, and Nexi
Europe’s merchant acquiring market has grown along two models. Adyen built a single global platform for large multinational merchants. Worldline and Nexi grew by consolidating national acquirers. Mollie takes a third path, focused on European small and midsize businesses, with €147 million in net revenue in 2025, far behind those three. The acquisition does not change that order of magnitude. It does change the basis for comparison, which now turns as much on keeping a subscription running as on card authorization rates.
Three questions remain open. The first is mandate migration, since transferring mandates between creditors follows the rules of each national scheme. The second is the group’s regulatory structure, which the closing announcement does not address. The third concerns customers, who have been promised continuity of service and contract through an integration with no stated end date.