The USP of Dutch payments powerhouse Adyen is that (like Rome) it has been built by Adyeners, rather than built through acquisitions.

Its payment stack, products and data centres are all built in–house while even its loveably kitsch earnings videos (think 1970s TV chat show) have been designed and produced in-house.

Perhaps vibing off this, Adyen’s EMEA boss, Alexa von Bismarck, is also doing her own in-house construction, building a countryside house north of Berlin.

Flying high

The mother of two small boys, who grew up in the countryside, says: “I feel those kids should know what it’s like to be in the countryside.”

Von Bismarck, who is German and lives in Berlin, could potentially pilot a plane between her two abodes (she has a private plane licence), but, for now, the flying is on hold, she says, as she is busy with her job.

Von Bismarck, speaking via Zoom, is president, EMEA, Adyen, which means she is the commercial chops behind around 60 per cent of Adyen’s €1.6bn annual revenue business.

The Adyen proposition

For the uninitiated, Amsterdam-headquartered Adyen is an all-in-one-payment processor which delivers payments online, mobile and in-store, with its infrastructure linked to MasterCard, Visa and other payment methods.

It is used by Microsoft, Nike, McDonalds, Instacart and IKEA as well as less glamorous local merchants and operates in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

Adyen, which means ‘a fresh start’ in Surinamese, was set up in 2006 by Dutch entrepreneurs-cum-self-confessed payment geeks Pieter van der Does, its current co-CEO, and Arnout Schuijff, Adyen’s former CTO.

Adyen history

They chose the name Adyen, as they had previously founded Bibit, a payment processing trailblazer, which they sold to RBS-owned Worldpay for around €100 million.

Adyen may not have the Silicon Valley stardust of Stripe (a rival), or the Klarna charisma, but it’s motoring along just nicely.

Earnings were up 32 per cent year-on-year to €423m and revenues up 24 per cent to €913m in the first half of 2024, ballooning the Amsterdam-listed firm’s valuation to €39.6bn, making it one of Europe’s most valuable firms.

This marked a return to form from the previous year, when it shares plunged 39 per cent, wiping €18bn from its market capitalisation, following disappointing first-half profits and a slowdown in the US.

Von Bismarck’s role

Von Bismarck, who is in her forties and speaks fluent English, is responsible for between 400 and 500 staff, across 10 EMEA offices, including Milan, Warsaw and Dubai, where she works closely with country managers across each country.

Like the Adyen founders, von Bismarck says she is a self-confessed payments nerd, who says her role is to generate incremental revenue for Adyen merchant partners.

Von Bismarck says her management style is light touch.

She says:

“The management style is ‘How can I support this group to succeed? As opposed to micromanaging’ I think they wouldn’t be the right people to do that with.”

Varied market

The European payments market is variegated and operationally and regulatory complex. She says it is a “constant challenge” offering a standardised service across the continent.

She says:

“We have markets that are a bit more mature where we have been longer than others.

“I feel like what I am focusing a lot is ‘What works well? And what can be replicated? And what are things that we shouldn’t be doing?’”

She joined Adyen in 2013, saying she left the interview “really wanting the job” enticed by an Aladdin’s cave of opportunity (being the first hire in its Berlin office meant she could build the team from scratch) and the office vibe.

Future CEO?

Could von Bismarck see herself as Adyen CEO in the future?

Sidestepping the question, she says: 

“My take at Adyen has always been ‘I love to be challenged, I love to learn’ and so far I have been super-lucky at Adyen to do that every day.

“As long as I feel that that is happening, I am happy. The day that stops then it is probably time for something else.”

For the time being, Adyen still has plenty of market share to plunder, as it only has a single-digit per cent market share in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and North America.

Rivals include next-generation processors like Stripe and Checkout.com and legacy players like JP Morgan, Worldline and Fiserv.

Adyen’s in-house platform, connected to the card networks, makes it relatively unique in the payment processing industry, as its legacy rivals tend to be built up through disparate businesses.

Picking up licences

Adyen, which has achieved all its growth organically, has also snapped up several acquiring licences, and banking licences in the US and UK, which gives merchants a higher probability of authorisation rates and faster settlements.

Holding banking licences also means its merchants can offer banking services and cash advances to SMEs.

Furthermore, Adyen’s single platform helps merchants scale quickly into new markets.

Pocketing smaller partners

Von Bismarck says Adyen is now picking up smaller merchant partners.

She says:

“I think historically, we have always been very good at, especially the cross-regional customers, where we solve a lot of complexity.

“Our sweet spot has always been, where we were able to simplify that for our customers. But for now, we are also starting to win some local heroes.

“So those who might not be across regional focus, but they are focused on one or two markets and we still win them. And that is a really nice trend.”

Adyen is also making a splash in the US while e-commerce revenues, Adyen’s heartland, are being complemented by growing brick-and-mortar and omnichannel transaction volumes.

Adyen challenges

Adyen is facing challenges, including a downturn in customer spending, aggressive pricing from competitors and merchants being cost-focused and using local providers.

On Adyen’s competitors, she says: “The challenges are good because they keep us on our feet. And we need competition right otherwise all of this will be very boring.”

Amid a challenging economic environment, von Bismarck admits the conservation with its customers is changing.

She said:

“What we do see as a trend is the narrative, pre-Covid especially, was much more about growth.

“And we are the prime partner to unlock growth for our customers because we help them expand to new regions, help we help them to reach new channels.

“It is now much more performance conversation today. I wouldn’t say it’s a cost discussion, but it’s a value discussion, which we have always had.

“But we are now focused a little bit more on how we help our customers to optimise the total cost of ownership.”

Adyen now a global financial technology provider

Last year, Mariëtte Swart, chief risk and compliance officer at Adyen, said Adyen had moved beyond payment processing and was a now “a full spectrum global financial technology provider”.

Von Bismarck agrees with the new definition.

She says:

“Why we are saying that is we are expanding into new services.

“We are not just processing payments, we are also taking care of the faster payouts of our customers.

“We now start offering financial products such as capital issuing. I think we are advancing the value chain we are creating for our customers and we are doing that on a global scale.”