Losses widen in 2022 at London payments unicorn Paddle as it spends on product upgrades

Shoreditch-based payments unicorn Paddle’s losses widened to more than £34 million in 2022, as it aimed to gear its product towards “upmarket developers”, latest filings show.

The firm, founded in 2012 by CEO Christian Owens when he was 18, provides payments, tax and compliance services to software businesses. In 2022, Paddle’s revenue almost doubled to £49.0 million. Of that total, £33.2 million came from outside of Europe, while only £3.0 million came from the UK. £12.8m worth of revenue came from the rest of Europe.

 However, expenses soared, as the business continued to spend on product development. 

Paddle said that much of the development work was to improve its billing and subscription management “to align with the expectations of its upmarket developers”, which use Paddle to manage payments for their software-as-a-service products.

That meant losses rose to £34.2 million.

“The company’s strategy continues to be focused on increasing the complexity and depth of its offering, whilst providing the security and compliance expected of a leading provider of the company’s services and by its customers globally,” it said.

The number of employees at Paddle more than doubled during the year, to 284.

In 2022, Paddle raised £162 million from US private equity giant KKR at a £1.1 billion valuation. 

Owens, who launched his first internet company aged 14, was listed a member of the Forbes 30 under 30 in 2016 and has been awarded a Thiel Fellowship, a two-year entrepreneurship programme set up by serial investor Peter Thiel.