How to Invest in Checkout.com Pre-IPO

By Matthew DiLallo – Updated Jan 29, 2025 at 11:32 PM

Key Points

Checkout.com uses proprietary technology for handling payments.
The company is privately owned and has delayed its IPO due to sufficient funding and market conditions.
Accredited investors can sometimes buy pre-IPO shares via platforms like Forge Global, but others must wait.

Checkout.com has the typical start-up story. Its founder, Swiss-born Guillaume Pousaz, wanted to create a better customer experience. That led him to found Checkout.com in 2012 to build a better payment solutions provider.

Pousaz and his team have certainly accomplished that goal. Checkout.com uses proprietary technology to handle every aspect of the payment process, including processing different currencies (fiat and crypto). The company's seamless solutions are winning over a growing number of customers.

A person making a purchase with a mobile phone. — Image source: Getty Images.

At one point, Checkout.com was one of the most valuable start-ups in the world at $40 billion. Even though its valuation has come back down to earth -- along with those of others in the start-up world over the past couple of years -- that hasn't diminished investor interest in the financial technology company. Many investors can't wait for the opportunity to buy shares. Although most investors will need to wait until Checkout.com completes an initial public offering (IPO) before they can buy shares, there are many alternative options in the financial technology industry worth considering.

Is Checkout.com publicly traded?

Checkout.com is not a publicly traded company. It's a private company owned by its founder, Pousaz, and several institutional investors, including Franklin Templeton, Qatar Investment Authority, Tiger Global Management, and GIC.

When will Checkout.com IPO?

Checkout.com didn't have an IPO on the calendar as of early 2025. The financial technology company doesn't seem to be in any hurry to go public. The company had raised a lot of money from institutional investors. Because Checkout.com has funding, it doesn't have any pressure to go public. Another factor that could keep Checkout.com private is the continued freeze in the IPO markets and lower valuations for start-ups due to higher interest rates. If the IPO market starts to thaw and start-up valuations improve, it could spur Checkout.com to consider going public.

IPO

IPO (Initial Public Offering) is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public, making it a publicly traded entity.

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Is Checkout.com profitable?

Private companies like Checkout.com don't have to disclose their financial results publicly, so there isn't much available information about the company's profitability.

However, according to an article by PYMNTS.com in early 2025, Checkout.com posted a pre-tax loss of $8 million in 2023. That was down from a $138 million loss in the prior year, driven in part by a 72% reduction in its headcount.

Those cost-cutting moves should help boost its profitability in the future. It also announced several new partnerships in 2024 to help drive additional revenue growth. Becoming profitable would put Checkout.com in a stronger position to secure a higher valuation whenever it chooses to go public.

Should I invest in Checkout.com?

Most investors can't yet invest in Checkout.com since it hasn't completed an IPO, so they have lots of time to research the company and follow the trends driving its growth.

One thing worth pointing out is that while financial technology trends have been big growth drivers over the years, they haven't always driven strong returns for investors in fintech stocks. For example, shares of leading payments companies Shopify, PayPal, and Block have all lost value over the last three years, while PayPal stock has been a money-loser over the last five years. And while all three have made money for investors since Shopify's IPO in 2015, the gains have varied significantly, with Shopify producing spectacular returns while PayPal reported underwhelming results, underperforming the S&P 500.

ETFs with exposure to Checkout.com

The varied performance of payment stocks over the years is why many people prefer to be passive investors rather than trying to pick stocks and actively manage their portfolios. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are an easy way to be a passive investor in the broader market or specific themes like financial technology.

Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF)

An exchange-traded fund, or ETF, allows investors to buy many stocks or bonds at once.

While you can't use ETFs to gain exposure to Checkout.com since it's not yet a publicly traded company, you can use them to invest in fintech stocks. A couple of noteworthy ETFs focused on financial technology and innovation are:

Ark Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF +1.37%): Well-known ETF manager Cathie Wood actively manages this fintech-focused fund. The ETF typically holds between 35 and 55 stocks. The actively managed fund charges a reasonable 0.75% ETF expense ratio. Shopify and Block were two of the fund's top three holdings in early 2025.
Global X FinTech ETF (NYSEMKT:FINX): This thematic ETF focuses on companies at the leading edge of the fintech sector. It held shares of more than 60 companies in early 2025, including PayPal (largest) and Block (third-largest). The ETF charges a 0.68% total expense ratio.Most Famous Investors in the World

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The bottom line on Checkout.com

Checkout.com is on a mission to help businesses thrive in the digital economy by developing leading payment technology, which made it one of the more richly valued start-ups a few years ago. Although most investors can't buy shares of the privately held financial technology company yet, they have many other ways to invest in innovators in the payments sector while waiting for Checkout.com to finally go public.

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About the Author

Matt DiLallo has been a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst specializing in covering dividend-paying companies, particularly in the energy and REIT sectors, since 2012. He also covers pre-IPO companies, ETFs, and other investing topics. He holds an MBA from Liberty University.

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Matt DiLallo has positions in PayPal and Shopify and has the following options: short February 2025 $77.50 calls on PayPal and short March 2025 $170 calls on Shopify. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends PayPal and Shopify. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2027 $42.50 calls on PayPal and short March 2025 $85 calls on PayPal. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.