London fintech Paydock secures £25 million Series A funding round

The Southwark-based business, which manages payment providers on behalf of clients, has secured a £25 million series A round led by venture capital firm Silverstripe. Paydock declined to confirm the company’s new valuation after the round.

Founder and CEO Rob Lincolne told the Standard: “Payments have got very complicated very quickly.

“When we see data leaks a lot of that has to do with merchants wiring together all these different systems and forgetting to close back doors. Merchants don’t want that complexity.

“Maybe it doesn’t have the sex appeal of a PayPal or a Klarna but orchestration is actually the backbone of the payments industry.”

The company was launched in Australia in 2015 before moving to London in 2018. Lincolne said it had become more difficult to secure funding amid a fall in fintech valuations but that investors are continuing to back tech firms with a strong business case.

“We’re seeing the capital markets drift towards B2B and infrastructure investment – that is a message to the market that orchestration is here to stay,” he said.

“We feel really pleased about the choice we made to be in London. It’s still a great hub for fintech.”

The firm, which has over 100 staff, plans to use the funding to recruit new employees, grow its client base and expand its technology offering.

Lincolne said a recent spate of fintech collapses had made it harder for merchants to manage their payment providers. In February, Australian buy now, pay later firm OpenPay entered administration, while in March, London-based embedded finance business Railsr was saved from failing in a last-minute rescue deal.

“The cradle to grave lifecycle of fintech has been really frothy and that has created a sense of risk,” he said.

“It’s a spaghetti mess out there [but] we can strip out inefficiency.”