Adyen

Adyen operates as an acquiring bank with a European banking license, a branch license in the United States, and an acquiring license in the United Kingdom. The company also holds acquiring licenses for Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Puerto Rico, all obtained between 2017 and 2021. These licenses allow Adyen to authorise, settle, and hold merchant funds directly.

Adyen generates revenue from a mix of settlement fees, processing fees charged per transaction, and fees from value-added services like risk management. Unlike many fintechs, it does not monetise through interchange markups on most transactions, earning primarily from the merchant side. The firm's scale and direct connection to card schemes typically result in lower per-transaction costs over a network, offsetting the revenue per transaction.

Adyen built and runs its entire platform — gateway, risk, acquiring, and issuing — as a single codebase and single ledger. This means client data moves through one system without being handed off between third parties for authorisation, fraud screening, and settlement. Stripe, by contrast, historically relies on partner banks to perform acquiring and settlement, while PayPal operates a two-sided consumer wallet alongside its merchant acquiring business.

Adyen does not publish an explicit list of prohibited sectors, but as a regulated bank, it is subject to strict compliance and risk standards. The firm typically focuses on large, digital-native enterprises, travel, retail, and food-and-beverage platforms. It does not offer high-risk acquiring for industries like unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges or adult entertainment, aligning with standard acquiring-bank risk appetite.

Adyen launched embedded capital products in 2023 on an invitation-only basis, allowing merchants to access funding drawn against future sales. The firm uses transaction data to pre-qualify businesses and determine advance amounts. Unlike a standalone lender, Adyen’s capital product depends on its existing payment relationship, reducing repayment risk through settlement intercepts.

Adyen is a public company and does not operate a venture arm or make co-investments alongside external general partners. The firm has historically made only a handful of strategic acquisitions, including the U.S.-based POS terminal provider Magento POS systems integration. It does not deploy capital as a limited partner or into early-stage startups.

Adyen does not have a CIO or allocate to external managers. Treasury and capital allocation are managed by CFO Ethan Tandowsky and the treasury team, with oversight from the management board led by Pieter van der Does. The investment case for Adyen centers on its internal capital discipline; excess cash is typically held in low-risk instruments consistent with operating a regulated bank.