← Embedded Finance Index 2026

Paddle

Also a provider — view Paddle’s profile →

“Can a Merchant-of-Record billing platform own the entire SaaS/app payments + tax + compliance stack and displace Stripe Billing for global software sellers?”

Founded2012
HQLondon, UK
FoundersChristian Owens, Harrison Rose
Total raised$293M
Latest roundSeries D, May 2022
Valuation$1.4B
IndustryInfrastructure / Payments
The story

Paddle started in 2012 as a payments/billing tool for software sellers, but its defining pivot was becoming the Merchant of Record (MoR) for SaaS — Paddle itself is the seller on record, so it handles global sales tax, VAT, chargebacks, and payment processing for its customers. The 2022 ProfitWell acquisition added retention and metrics, giving Paddle a fuller SaaS-billing suite versus Stripe Billing/Chargebee/Recurly. Since 2023 Paddle has been migrating customers off Paddle Classic onto Paddle Billing, and in 2024 aggressively expanded into mobile in-app purchase alternatives following the Epic v. Apple ruling.

Last 12 months
2025-10
2026
Product timeline
2012
Paddle founded in London as a payments/billing platform for software companies.· banking
2019
Launched Merchant of Record model for SaaS, handling tax, compliance, and payments globally.· pivot
2022
Acquired ProfitWell to add subscription analytics, retention (Retain), and metrics.· acquisition
2022
Raised $200M Series D at $1.4B valuation led by KKR.· banking
2023
Launched Paddle Billing (next-gen platform), succeeding Paddle Classic — new signups on Billing only from 2023-08-08.· pivot
2024
Launched in-app purchase / web monetization products for mobile apps to sell outside App Store, following Epic v. Apple ruling.· banking
Acquisitions
ProfitWell2022
Subscription analytics, retention (Retain) and metrics platform for SaaS; became ProfitWell Metrics inside Paddle.
Regulated entities
3
regulatory licences held by Paddle
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
3 layers disclosed in Paddle’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Paddle (self-operated MoR)StripeAdyencheckoutrazorpayglobal payments
Card network
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
2 more providers across 2 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.