Skip to content

SumUp

Payments · United Kingdom
Founded 2012 · sumup.com

London-based mPOS fintech (originally Berlin), 4M+ SMBs, heavy US-VC funding (Goldman Sachs led €1.5B 2024); US$10-15B London listing in preparation.

SumUp offers EU hosting in the United Kingdom, but a US parent or sub-processor leaves material CLOUD Act exposure. It is listed under Payments.

Assessment notes

SumUp is London-headquartered British fintech (HQ moved from Berlin to London long ago, founded 2012 by Daniel Klein, Alessandro Leoni, Marc Alexander Christ, Stefan Jeschonnek), serving 4M+ SMBs across the US, UK, Germany, France, and dozens of other markets, but the cap table is heavily US-funded (Goldman Sachs led €1.5B May 2024, plus Bain Capital Credit, Crestline, Oaktree, American Express), the company operates a US entity (SumUp Inc., Delaware), uses US banking partners (Fifth Third Bank as Payment Facilitator, Piermont Bank for banking services), and a London listing at US$10-15B is being prepared: ownership_signal: eu_hq_us_funded, cloud_act_exposure: material; a public self-serve DPA is available, but it grants general authorisation to engage sub-processors without naming any and no sub-processors list is published, which caps the score at 3.

Findings

CLOUD Act
Ownership
Sub-processors
— not disclosed

Verified signals

Jurisdiction
  • EU / adequacy hosting: Yes
  • EU / adequacy operator: Yes
  • No US CLOUD Act exposure: No
Transparency
  • Public DPA: Yes
  • Sub-processors disclosed: No
  • Open-source clients: No
  • Third-party certification: No
Jump to

About 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 (~1.39% 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). As of April 2026 SumUp is reported to be preparing a possible London listing at a valuation of US$10-15B, with Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and JPMorgan lining up the float and leadership said to prefer London to New York. Neither venue is an EU listing, so the ownership signal is unaffected either way.

Pricing in Germany: a pay-as-you-go tier at €0/month and 1.39% in person or 2.5% online, and a Payments Plus subscription (renamed from SumUp One) at €19/month for 0.79% domestic and 1.39% on premium, international and Amex cards, with custom terms above €10,000/month. Hardware is priced separately and is no longer listed on the pricing page. 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 look at Adyen (Euronext Amsterdam) or Worldline (Euronext Paris), the two publicly-listed European processors in this category, instead.

Sub-processor map · not disclosed

Vendor does not publish a sub-processors list. Schrems II compliance and CLOUD Act exposure cannot be independently verified without it.

Frameworks & certifications · none listed

We checked the vendor's website and standard certification body registries. No active certifications found at the time of last audit (2026-08-26).

Capability matrix

Table 1Capabilities of SumUp

Card payments Yes
SEPA Direct Debit No
Buy now, pay later No
Open banking (A2A) No
Recurring / subscriptions No
Payment links Yes
In-person / POS Yes
Marketplace / split No

Integration & access

REST API Yes
SSO (SAML / OIDC) No

Compliance & governance

Audit log No
Self-host / on-prem option No

Pricing & tiers

from €0/mo
Paid
View pricing page

Public documents

Vendor does not publish a sub-processors list. Schrems II compliance and CLOUD Act exposure cannot be independently verified without it.
  • Data Processing Addendum (DPA)
    www.sumup.com/en-gb…
    Open
  • Sub-processors list
    — missing
    missing
  • Terms of Service
    www.sumup.com/en-gb…
    Open

Alternatives in this category

  • Netherlands
    EU-Hosted
    Public DPA: Yes Sub-processors: Yes Open source: No
  • France
    EU-Hosted
    Public DPA: No Sub-processors: No Open source: No
  • Norway
    EU-Based
    Public DPA: Yes Sub-processors: Yes Open source: No