swiss billionaire

Guillaume Pousaz, the CEO and creator of the online payment system Checkout.com, is a Swiss billionaire businessman living in Dubai. His estimated net wealth as of January 2022 is $20 billion USD.

About Checkout.com

Checkout.com is a global provider of financial technology that manages payments for other businesses. It was established in 2009 under the name Opus Payments and is based in London, United Kingdom. It was the most valued European fintech company in 2022, with a valuation of over $40 billion.

Its customers include Coinbase, Netflix, and Pizza Hut. Every year, the website processes hundreds of billions of dollars in payments, with volumes tripling in each of the last three years as a result of the pandemic’s massive use of online payments as well as the growth of cryptocurrencies, with Checkout.com being used by many online exchanges.

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Early Life

Before enrolling in a bachelor’s program in economics at HEC Lausanne, Pousaz completed mathematical engineering coursework at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

Pousaz originally intended to work in investment banking, but he left his Swiss university in 2005 when his father was diagnosed with cancer. With no money in the bank and after failing his economics finals at the age of 19, Guillaume Pousaz went to California to become a surfer.

The Swedish academic dropout joined the processing firm International Payment Consultants after running out of money. With the help of the IPC head of sales, Pousaz founded NetMerchant in 2007, a service for sending money from the US to Europe. The business was active until 2009. In 2009, he acquired a Mauritius-based small payments firm named SMS Pay for $300,000.

Success Story

In 2009, Pousaz established Opus Payments in Singapore, allowing businesses in Hong Kong to accept payments from clients all over the globe. In 2012, Opus Payments changed its name to Checkout.com. The goal of the business’s founding was to help customers and merchants with the issue of processing internet payments.

Checkout.com secured $230 million in the capital in 2019. This was the biggest Series A funding round a European fintech company had ever received at the moment. Checkout.com raised an additional US$450 million in January 2021 at a US$15 billion value.

Because of this, Forbes pegged Pousaz’s net wealth at $9 billion. He is the CEO of the company and owner of approximately two-thirds of Checkout.com. In May 2021, Pousaz established Zinial Growth, a personal business company. The company has invested in cryptocurrency startup Snickerdoodle Labs as well as e-commerce start-ups Wayflyer and Ziina.

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Checkout.com was valued at $40 billion in January 2022 following a $1 billion fundraising effort, providing Pousaz an approximate net worth of US$20 billion. With an estimated net worth of £19.259 billion, he came in at number five on the Sunday Times Rich List 2022 ranking of the wealthiest individuals in the UK.