Stripe competitor Checkout.com announced last month that Céline Dufétel was named the new president.
He previously served as CFO and COO of the London-based fintech startup for about 18 months prior to its promotion. In her expanded role, which still includes serving as the company’s chief operating officer, Dufétel oversees all trading and operational teams, including finance and marketing. In announcing the New York-based executive’s appointment, the company told me the move was symbolic of Checkout.com “assuming its entitlement in the US.”
Dufétel certainly has impressive experience in the world of financial services. Immediately prior to joining Checkout, she was COO and CFO for T. Rowe Price for three years. And before that, she worked in Neuberger Berman and was a partner at McKinsey & Company. Dufetel was also named among Barron’s 100 Most Influential Women in US Finance in 2021 and Fortune’s 40 Under 40 in 2020.
Checkout.com is building a full-stack payments company: in the words of TC’s Romain Dillet, it acts as a gateway, acquirer, risk engine, and payment processor. It allows you to process payments directly on your site or in your app, but you can also rely on hosted payment pages, create payment links, etc. It supports card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Alipay, bank transfers, SEPA direct debits and also allows you to issue payments.
In December, the company made headlines when it cut its internal valuation to $11 billion, which was a big drop from the $40 billion valuation the company achieved just under a year earlier. At the time, founder and CEO Guillaume Pousaz had told TC that the move was aimed at “taking advantage of current conditions to update the company’s tax valuation.” Most recently, Checkout.com launched a new product, giving its customers a way to create payment cards for their own customers.
TechCrunch reached out to Dufétel to learn more about her plans as Checkout.com’s new president, including what’s in store for the company this year, her thoughts on the future of payments in general, and why she sees so many opportunities in the US. We asked how you felt about comparisons to Stripe… and your answer may surprise you.
The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Congratulations on your new role! What awaits Checkout.com in 2023?
Thank you, it’s an exciting time to expand my tenure at Checkout.com as 2023 is a critical year for us – we’re really ramping up our business efforts, particularly in the US. While we’ve grown a lot in APAC and EMEA, US The US is the second largest e-commerce market in the world and there is a huge untapped growth opportunity there.
The US payments landscape is currently dominated by legacy and new-age incumbents, and we know that competition will ultimately deliver better results for consumers. We have a strong portfolio of brands across sectors and verticals that we already serve internationally and are also interested in our support in the US. For example, we recently announced a partnership with GE Healthcare to help to drive the rapid expansion of the company’s e-commerce.
How did Checkout.com perform in 2022? Can you share revenue/growth (YoY) metrics?
As Checkout.com is a private company, we do not disclose group financials, but we are a well-funded, agile company uniquely positioned to capitalize on opportunities in what is a rapidly expanding total addressable market. We have launched five products in the past few months and have a strong pipeline planned as we continue to innovate to better serve our merchants.
How many employees do you have? Did you lay off in the last year?
Since 2012, we have grown to more than 1,900 employees in 21 global offices. Like many companies in all industries, we have had to adjust the pace of our growth to reflect current macroeconomic conditions, and we made the difficult decision in September of last year to reduce Checkout.com’s workforce by less than five percent. (about 100 people). This decision was not made lightly, but it was a strategic re-prioritization of our workforce in which we reduced headcount in some areas where we are spending less and maintained or even grew in areas that are high priorities for us. This will allow us to focus on strategic priorities against our mission, which is to enable businesses and their communities to thrive in the digital economy by delivering innovative products and services when they are needed most.
What do you think of the comparisons with Stripe?
We welcome you. Stripe has built an impressive business, and we believe that strong competition delivers better results for merchants around the world, which is our goal. But when you compare us to Stripe, one important distinction to make is that Stripe’s roots are in serving small businesses; ours are in the segment of medium and global companies. Our target customers are those that have grown in complexity and often global presence. Those merchants need a different level of sophistication, as their payment performance and global reach really matter. The service, commitment and partnership we can provide really matters – because we work with thousands of merchants instead of millions, we can provide that white glove service and flexible solutions to meet your needs.
Merchants want transparency and commitment to help them solve their most complex problems, and we offer that too. Where others’ tech stack is more of a black box, we empower those more mature merchants with transparency and customization of their infrastructure to drive performance. The close collaboration with our merchants to develop solutions together is of the utmost importance to us. We provide a real strategic advantage to digitally minded brands, and I’m proud to say we have one of the highest acceptance rates in the industry.
How has the global recession affected your business?
It’s no secret that the current macroeconomic climate is difficult for many businesses, some of which are our merchants. With that being said, we are focused and deliberate on reaching our long-term goals and continuing to add new merchants to our growing list of clients. Our diverse client base, spanning a healthy mix of international markets and industries, helps diversify our revenue stream to minimize the impact of instability in specific markets or regions.
I’m not sure if you’re working with any crypto/web3 companies, but if so, has the FTX debacle made you reconsider any of those relationships?
We have always believed in serving innovative companies, starting with fintechs since our inception and most recently serving innovators in the crypto/web3 space in 2019. While this is an exciting sector, it represents a modest part of our business. Of course, we recognize the severity of the current situation in contrast to other events in the past, but we remain committed to supporting our merchants with the best possible payment solutions.
These events underscore the need for a clear regulatory framework. That’s something we’ve long advocated for to better support innovators, put this technology safely in the hands of businesses and consumers globally, and build trust in the ecosystem as a whole.
What do you see overall for the payments industry in 2023?
Now more than ever, amid the uncertain economic landscape, CFOs and heads of payments are reducing the impact of payments on top-line growth and profitability. Increasingly, business leaders are recognizing the measurable impact of high-performance payment systems in maximizing acceptance rates, minimizing costly fraud issues, and reducing operational costs. In the US in particular, where the digital payments infrastructure has lagged behind other regions, there is room for businesses to strengthen their payment processes to drive better business results.