Checkout.com has agreed to acquire Modulr Finance, the Edinburgh-based embedded payments and banking-as-a-service platform, in a deal worth £800 million. The acquisition will allow Checkout.com to offer end-to-end payment processing capabilities including direct account-to-account payments and virtual accounts, expanding its proposition beyond its core online card processing business. Modulr, which holds an FCA e-money licence and processes payments for firms including Revolut, Sage, and Sodexo, will operate as a standalone division within Checkout.com.

The deal represents a significant shift in UK fintech M&A dynamics, marking one of the first major acquisitions of one established British fintech by another. Previous waves of consolidation in the sector were dominated by foreign acquirers and private equity firms. Guillaume Pousaz, Checkout.com's founder and CEO, said the combination would create a payments infrastructure company capable of serving businesses across the full spectrum of payment types, from instant card transactions to batch payroll processing.

Industry analysts at Autonomous Research described the transaction as the opening move in what they expect to be a sustained period of horizontal consolidation among mid-market UK fintechs. With venture capital funding remaining below 2021 peaks and investor appetite shifting towards profitability over growth, many mid-sized fintechs are finding it more attractive to combine with larger platforms than to pursue independent paths to scale. At least two further fintech-on-fintech acquisitions in the UK payments space are expected to be announced before the end of the first quarter of 2026.