Adyen, an Amsterdam-based payments software provider, has reportedly beaten rival Stripe to the punch in using a merchant’s iPhone without any additional hardware to accept customer card payments. Adyen is the first company to widely distribute a new generation of Apple tap-to-pay services.
Apple unveiled a new version of tap-to-pay in February, requiring only an iPhone and an app from a partner to use. It claimed Stripe would be the first business to provide such a service, but the company is still in the beta testing phase and promoting a spring launch for its app. Select merchants can use the service, which is provided by Square and Shopify, both of which use Stripe as their payment processor. Any of Adyen’s US clients can start immediately accepting tap-to-pay from an iPhone. Among the first group of retailers to use the new service are clothing manufacturers Vince, G-Star, Scotch & Soda, and Nike NKE. Adyen’s software does not require additional downloads because it is made to integrate with merchants’ existing software.
As the world recovers from the Covid-19 disruptions, Adyen is attempting to capitalize on new shopping trends, according to CFO Ingo Uytdehaage, who spoke to Forbes. “In a pandemic, there is a moment when customers purchase an item online, and the following moment, stores reopen, and the customers are seen in-store. How do you forge this personal connection? Do you know when customers are actually present in the store? Are they available online? These are the kinds of insights I believe retailers are seeking.
Adyen’s payment service offers customer data for both in-person and online sales, unlike rivals Stripe and Square, both of which are based in the United States and are known for supporting brick and mortar retailers. Pieter van der Does, the current CEO, and Arnout Schuijiff founded Adyen in 2006. The pair began their careers in e-commerce in 2000 at Bibit, another Schuijiff-founded electronic payment platform. Van der Does and Schuijiff became billionaires in 2018 as a result of Adyen’s IPO. Van der Does and Schuijiff still have net worths of $1.8 billion and $2.4 billion, respectively, despite the recent decline in fintech stock prices.
Adyen processed $516 billion of transactions in 2021, compared to Stripe’s $640 billion, through clients like Uber UBER, Spotify, Levi’s, and eBay. The market capitalization of Adyen, which is listed on EuroNext Amsterdam, is $43.36 billion. Although the company has not completely avoided the downturn in fintech stocks, its revenue has increased at an average rate of 64% over the past three years. At around $13.81, its shares have lost 45 percent of their value so far this year. Competitors have also been impacted by the market selloff. In 2022, Block (formerly Square) has dropped 60%, and PayPal PYPL is down 62%. According to a Wall Street Journal report from earlier today, Stripe reduced its internal valuation to $74 billion. The updated valuation represents a 28% drop from its previous private investor valuation of $95 billion following a funding round of $600 million in March of last year.
Adyen intends to keep gaining momentum in the US despite the more challenging macroeconomic environment. According to Uytdehaage, in 2021, more than 40% of its revenue was generated outside of Europe, with the United States serving as its second-largest market. Additionally, the company is growing its San Francisco and New York offices. According to LinkedIn data, Adyen hired 34 new employees between June and July, defying the trend of tech industry layoffs.
When it comes to processing payments in the United States, “we’re winning more and more domestic names like Dick’s Sporting Goods, for example,” Uytdehaage said. “I believe that is as a result of the innovation we bring, particularly in this unified commerce space. Few businesses—practically none—can actually process both online and in-person payments on the same platform and then combine all the data at the back end. The main advantage for retailers is that.
