Checkout.com sacks six after foreign trip

A BRITISH payments unicorn has sacked six members of staff over harassment complaints following a week-long team-building trip to Cyprus.

Checkout.com, which was valued at $40bn (£34bn) in January, terminated the contracts of six people in its 120-person commercial team following a company off-site.

The company began an investigation in May within 24 hours of concerns being raised. A spokesman told Bloomberg: “We have a zero-tolerance policy for any behaviour that is not in line with our values. Any complaint will always be taken seriously and acted on.

“Since May, we have carried out mandatory in-person workplace culture training for the UK commercial team facilitated by an external provider, and have developed a standalone harassment and bullying policy to strengthen our existing framework.”

Nick Worswick, Checkout.com’s chief revenue officer, warned about the behaviour of some staff in an email in May, saying the company could not tolerate any kind of harassment.

Checkout.com, founded by entrepreneur Guillaume Pousaz in 2012, provides payments processing and fraud detection software for companies such as Netflix, Farfetch and Klarna.

Earlier this year, it announced it had raised $1bn in new funding, led by Qatar Investment Authority and Tiger Global, valuing it at $40bn and making it the most valuable financial technology company in the UK.

Mr Pousaz has a net worth of over $20bn by virtue of his stake in the company, according to Forbes. The company has grown to more than 1,700 staff.

Valuations have been soaring for financial technology companies, including its rival Stripe, which was valued at $95bn last year. According to Checkout. com’s latest accounts, for the year ending in December 2020, it reported a loss of $25.9m on revenues of $252m.