SumUp

SumUp is a London-headquartered British fintech (founded in Berlin in 2012 by Daniel Klein, Alessandro Leoni, Marc Alexander Christ, and Stefan Jeschonnek; CEO Daniel Klein) focused on mobile point-of-sale (mPOS), card terminals, and integrated payments for small businesses. The product targets the segment Square dominates in the US — micro-merchants, mobile traders, market vendors, hospitality, retail — with a hardware-led entry (the iconic SumUp Air card reader at €19 one-time) and a flat transaction fee (~1.69% in DACH; varies by market). The company serves 4M+ SMBs across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and dozens of other markets across Europe and South America. For an EU-sovereignty audit SumUp sits squarely in the "European brand, US-funded structurally" tier. The cap table is dominated by US institutional investors: **Goldman Sachs** (which led a US$624M / €1.5B funding round in May 2024 at an US$8.5B valuation), **Bain Capital Credit**, **Crestline**, **Oaktree Capital Management**, and **American Express** all hold significant positions, alongside Temasek (Singapore), BBVA Ventures (Spain), and Groupon (US). The company operates **SumUp Inc.** (a Delaware entity at 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington — the classic Delaware-registered-agent address) for US operations and uses US banking partners (Fifth Third Bank as registered Payment Facilitator and Piermont Bank for FDIC-member banking services in the US). SumUp is publicly considering a stock-market listing in **either London or New York** at a valuation of up to US$15B — the eventual venue will define ownership posture but both are non-EU listings. Pricing: SumUp Air card reader €19 one-time + 1.69% per transaction in DACH (rates vary by country); SumUp Solo terminal €79; SumUp One subscription €19/month for 0.99% rate on supported markets. No monthly fee on the base plan. Best fit: micro-merchants and hospitality / retail SMBs wanting an inexpensive hardware-led card-acceptance solution. Procurement-grade EU buyers requiring an EU-controlled ownership chain should choose Adyen, Worldline, or Mollie (NL/FR public-listed European processors) instead.