Global payments platform for SMEs, SumUp has announced the appointment of Hermione McKee as Chief Financial Offer, she joins the firm from language learning platform Babbel.
This move has gotten us wondering if this is a hint toward an IPO for SumUp. We spoke to SumUp co-founder Marc-Alexander Christ about the company’s €590 million debt/equity financing round at an €8 billion valuation in July last year where Christ said that an IPO was ‘not an unlikely step’ for the fintech giant.
Adding that ‘we enjoy very good access to private capital both on the equity side and the debt side, so the whole need of doing IPO – at least there is no pressure on that topic’. Well, that was last year and this is now…so watch this space.
McKee also brings with her experience from game software company Wooga where she was CFO, and her CV also boasts HelloFresh (which went public in 2017), Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Unilever.
“I am excited to get going at SumUp – it’s an inspiring company and one which I have admired for some time. SumUp is a global leader with a strong track record in delivering for merchants and the company mission is particularly compelling. SumUp’s range of products and solutions are time tested as well as profoundly popular on the market, and I relish the opportunity ahead of me,” says McKee.
“I’m delighted that Hermione has joined SumUp. We’re at an important point in our journey and her experience will be vital in our quest to continue to make business simple for merchants. As our product ecosystem continues to evolve and we expand as a company, her expertise will be all-important as we continue to provide merchants with all the tools they need to conduct business,” says Christ.
Now back to that IPO – the current window is closed but Sarah Guemouri, Principal at Atomico suggested in our feature on Atomico’s ‘State of European Tech’, that ‘the IPO window could re-open later this year’. “Once this window opens, there will be a queue of high growth firms – and tens of billions in unrealized value – waiting,” states Guemouri, who co-authored the State of European Tech report.
