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Paddle

Payments, tax, and subscriptions solution for SaaS

201-500 employees
  • Fintech
  • B2B
  • Payments
  • SaaS
18-29 Mora Street, London, England EC1V 8BT, GB

Company mission

To help SaaS companies navigate the revenue journey at every stage.

Rocket List 2021
Top investors

Some candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

41% female employees

-3% employee growth in 12 months

Otta's take

Sam Franklin headshot

Sam Franklin

CEO of Otta

Software as a service (SaaS) is becoming the dominant way for new companies to sell their products. However, there are a number of interlinked tasks to build a great business. For example, setting up trials and licences, insights and analysis, payment gateways, taxes, and internationalisation.

Paddle offers SaaS companies a completely different approach to their payments infrastructure so that fast growth companies don't need to deal with this complicated puzzle. Instead of assembling and maintaining a complex stack of payments-related apps and services, it acts as a Merchant of Record for customers, taking away the pain of payments fragmentation.

Now serving over 4,000 customers, and having entered the unicorn club in 2022, the company has clearly found its share of success. However, the assumption that pandemic-era growth could be sustained, coupled with runaway operational costs, has seen Paddle recently layoff a number of its staff. With this move, it hopes to control and reduce its spend, so as to face the effects of the economic downturn in stronger shape and sustain its future.

Benefits

  • Share options
  • Private healthcare and mental health support
  • Flexible time off
  • Generous learning and development budget
  • 17 weeks of fully paid parental leave for both moms and dads
  • Work up to 45 days a year from a different country
  • Discount annual train ticket/cycle to work scheme
  • Home workstation budget

Company values

  • Exceptional Together
  • Better than Yesterday
  • Execute with Impact

Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)

May 2022

$200m

SERIES D

Nov 2020

$68m

SERIES C

$290.9m

Total funding

This company has top investors

Founders

Christian Owens

(Co-Founder & Executive Chairman)

Founded Paddle after finishing school. A fellow of the Thiel Foundation, which gives $100,000 to young people to build businesses instead of going to university.

Harrison Rose

(Co-Founder)

Founded Paddle at age 17, after finishing school, and has been both CSO and CCO at the company. Co-Founder and CEO of GoodFit.io.

People progressing

Joined as Event Manager and was promoted to Brand & Event Manager after 1 year. Bianca is now Head of Brand.

Diversity & Inclusion at Paddle

  • We want to increase the opportunities for under-represented Paddlers - we are going to partner with third parties to widen our talent pools, and how we create opportunities internally for when new Padders join to give access to further careers and growth
  • We’re already proud of the strides we’ve made around gender balance, especially at manager/leadership level and have a rich population of non British employees. Like most companies in our sector there is still much work to be done, but we’re ready and excited to bring about positive change

Endorsements

All

Autonomy (5)

Flexible working (5)

Career progression (4)

My opinions are valued (4)

Team energy (4)

Focus on employee wellbeing (4)

Growing fast (4)

Challenging work (3)

Opportunities to learn (3)

Intelligent people (3)

Paddle encourages people to be Exceptional Together, the result of this is an atmosphere where collaboration, learning, winning and growing all happen very natively. It's truly an impressive energy that's helps you feel like everyone is moving the needle.

Marketing

Team energy

Oct 2022

Paddle believe in nurturing and developing their people on both a personal and professional level. On top of the many personal development schemes, budgets and incentives offered, there's a culture of internal growth and promotion hard to find elsewhere in the FinTech space.

Marketing

Career progression

Oct 2022

At Paddle your working hours are yours to define, as is your working location. Paddle are a truly digital first company, trusting and empowering their employees to get the job done in the way that works best for them. The result? A truly global culture that exists organically of people working remotely or in our Central London/New York offices, with plans for more to come!

Marketing

Flexible working

Oct 2022

Teamwork is top-down at Paddle. I hate to sound cliche with "one for all, all for one," but the level of transparency and support at Paddle is refreshing and the managers will always listen to what you have to say.

Operations & Strategy

Supportive management

Dec 2020

It is great to not be in "clock watching" mode. You can adjust your schedule to meet your needs. Paddle encourages a balance between work and life and this is a tool to make that happen effectively.

Operations & Strategy

Flexible working

Dec 2020

During onboarding, pretty much all of the managers said that one of the keys to success at Paddle is to speak up: your thoughts are valued. That being said, actions are valued as well, and I love seeing shoutouts to folks for a job well done.

Operations & Strategy

My opinions are valued

Dec 2020

At Paddle there is not a lot of "official" top down communication - communication is more like a conversation and feels very inclusive and transparent. There is far more information shared via Slack and in Company-Wide meetings than over email, which feels personal and modern.

Operations & Strategy

Open and honest communication

Dec 2020

I was very impressed to learn and experience the care that Paddle takes over its employees - mental health coaching, 2 x different learning budgets per person, more expensive private health care, unlimited holiday. This goes a long way in making you feel valued as a person and an employee, and makes you feel much more than a payroll number.

Operations & Strategy

Focus on employee wellbeing

Dec 2020

Paddle wants to be the best in the market. I know that may seem like a cliche and surely every company wants that, but this is both a realistic and a high achieving target for Paddle. It will be a long journey but their growth in the market already proves the drive, ability and talent Paddle has to achieve this goal.

Operations & Strategy

Inspiring mission

Dec 2020

Paddlers are shown a lot of trust to get the job done. I've never experienced micro-management and have always been free to decide how to advance a project. But managers and colleagues are also on hand to collaborate and offer up suggestions. Which means you always have the headspace - yet also the support - to make the magic happen!

Marketing

Autonomy

Dec 2020

When some companies claim they care for their employees it can seem insincere, but at Paddle they follow through with genuine support I've not seen matched anywhere else. They provide mental health support, unlimited holidays and sick days, educational & career investment (£1000 a year per person to upskill), and they outline clear expectations and provide support and advice to get the work done. Whenever you talk to your managers, senior leaders, or colleagues, everyone seems to care for and appreciate one another. Which altogether makes for a comfortable, friendly environment.

Marketing

Focus on employee wellbeing

Dec 2020

In the past I don't think I would have prioritised 'intelligent people' as an important workplace criteria. But after working with so many engaged, smart, energetic people at Paddle, it makes such a visible difference. You're always learning something new, breaking new ground on challenging problems with insightful people from different backgrounds with unique skills and approaches... it really makes for a fun and interesting environment.

Marketing

Intelligent people

Dec 2020

Paddle has a grown up culture. We hire people who are brilliant and what they do and give them the freedom to deliver how they see fit. Everyone feels connected to our mission and it's that shared goal and trust that fuels our success.

People, HR, Recruitment

Autonomy

Dec 2020

Paddlers care deeply about social justice and creating an inclusive place to work. We want everyone to feel like they belong and are valued irrelevant of their background. Whilst we still have work to do we are striving for excellence together. Our Founders lead the way on diversity and when it comes from the top it becomes part of the conversation for all which is both refreshing and essential for change.

People, HR, Recruitment

Diversity is a priority

Dec 2020

All paddlers have a voice and an opportunity to be heard. Psychological safety isn't always easy to achieve but if you don't hire brilliant jerks and you work hard to build trust and safe spaces for sharing it can be achieved. I believe we have that here at Paddle, we're open and transparent with each other and respect each others POV's.

People, HR, Recruitment

My opinions are valued

Dec 2020

Growing at the rate we do and tackling as large of a challenge as we do means it's very rare you have an unofficial "day off" and can laze about. This year, for example, we expanded into China an entirely new market where we managed to make significant strides. Not a single day was easy though considering - the language barrier, COVID, incumbent competitors and more. Every year at Paddle has multiple of these david vs goliath type projects keeping things challenging.

Operations & Strategy

Challenging work

Dec 2020

Inter team dynamics are critical for what we do and how we're growing. This means I'm constantly exposed to new things and ways of working. Add onto that 2000+ SaaS customers that are going on their own growth journey and exposure to their success and failures I've been put in a very unique position learning wise. Feel like each year is 2-3 years of experience elsewhere.

Operations & Strategy

Opportunities to learn

Dec 2020

Me and my line manager have this unofficial agreement that the day we have more laggards than rockstars is the day I'll start to look to move on. Three years on I'm still here and the talent is now challenging me to not be the laggard and keep up.

Operations & Strategy

Intelligent people

Dec 2020

Being part of Paddle's expansion efforts in APAC means you need to deal with all the challenge of time zone, culture, and business mindset differences. It's steep learning curve and it's fun and very much rewarding!

Operations & Strategy

Challenging work

Dec 2020

Paddle offers a highly flexible and very complex products which means you need to really dive deep into those specs while keeping an eye on the commercial side. As an account manager, you need to be able to talk SaaS growth strategies with CXOs and discuss very specific product suggestions with tech and marketing people

Operations & Strategy

Opportunities to learn

Dec 2020

Being working remotely, you must be able to make quick decision and act fast in many cases. But Autonomy does not mean you don't have all the support and recourses you need. They are just there.

Operations & Strategy

Autonomy

Dec 2020

Autonomy is a value that I hold in high regard, as does Paddle. When I joined Paddle I was struck by the immense amount of support available as needed, while also being granted the confidence of leadership to own your work, share ideas and work toward delivering things you can be proud of - with a team with a shared sense of ownership.

Product

Autonomy

Dec 2020

With the big shift to working from home it's been important to me to still be active, so thanks to the Cycle to Work Scheme Paddle offers I've picked up cycling. Being able to start my day early means that while it gets dark early I'm still able to get out on the road for a brisk cycle in the colder months, while in the summer I shifted my mornings to cycle before it was too hot!

Product

Flexible working

Dec 2020

The passion among teams at Paddle is inspiring. We've been able to foster a team togetherness that has only gotten stronger since we've been even more broadly distributed across countries. Whether it's team planning, stakeholder listening sessions or spotlights I get to work and learn from colleagues who always bring their best to deliver for our customers.

Product

Team energy

Dec 2020

At Paddle, I am encouraged to share my opinions and I know that what I say will be listened to and considered. Everyone across the business is very open to feedback and hearing opinions from different members of the team.

Marketing

My opinions are valued

Dec 2020

The team energy at Paddle is really motivating. Even when things get busy, it's great being in a team that pulls together and works to achieve something together.

Marketing

Team energy

Dec 2020

We have regular meetings with the whole company where different departments and leaders share updates. There is a great culture for celebrating successes but also sharing and being honest when something hasn't gone to plan.

Marketing

Open and honest communication

Dec 2020

The exciting thing about working at Paddle is that we have seen a great deal of success, yet have only just started to scratch the surface of our addressable market. As we scale and continue to internationalise / move upmarket, this provides great opportunity to step up and be at the forefront of this journey. I have now had experience in visiting / closing business in China, Israel and the US and now have a defined career path into the newly formed Strategic team.

Operations & Strategy

Career progression

Dec 2020

There are new challenges on a daily basis, no day is the same so It feels like my development is stuck on fast forward. I have been at the company for 18 months and have been involved in 3 separate market launches, a series C fund raise and a complete re-launch of our positioning. With 2021 promising to be and even bigger year!

Operations & Strategy

Growing fast

Dec 2020

I feel that I am given the autonomy to perform and deliver the results that the business are looking for. With things changing / developing so quickly, whether a new market launch or targeting a new type of prospect, I feel that I am able to approach these challenges in my own way to deliver the desired outcome. I have a great team around me to share ideas and feel supported and empowered by the management team to achieve our shared goals.

Operations & Strategy

Autonomy

Dec 2020

Even from my interview, I could tell my manager and also department head were supportive people and looked for collaboration to face the challenges of the business. I've been given the freedom to take on major business issues and given the support to help remove blockers and understanding that we won't get things right at the first go sometimes. This has given me the confidence to take on any challenge our business faces.

Operations & Strategy

Supportive management

Dec 2020

My career has spanned more than 20 years, and I can honestly say I've never worked anywhere else where a company has cared so much for the wellbeing of it's employees. We have flexi working, unlimited holidays, private health insurance, and also mental wellbeing coaches. This is the only place I've worked where my manager has told me that I seemed tired and I should take a break to recharge my batteries.

Operations & Strategy

Focus on employee wellbeing

Dec 2020

Paddle is growing so quickly, that sometimes things which are working fine this week are out-scaled and outdated next week. This means things are always changing and developing the systems and processes to handle this is exciting and extremely challenging. I've learned more working in Paddle for a year than I did the previous 5 years.

Operations & Strategy

Challenging work

Dec 2020

People at Paddle are real subject matter experts in their fields - I can always count of their help and knowledge if I don't know something.

People, HR, Recruitment

Intelligent people

Dec 2020

We have a lot of flexibility when it comes to both work location and work hours so that makes it so much easier to fit your life around work and have a healthy lifestyle.

People, HR, Recruitment

Flexible working

Dec 2020

Paddle is growing really fast which means new opportunities and challenges arising in almost every team. This is amazing for your career development .

People, HR, Recruitment

Growing fast

Dec 2020

Data is at the centre of every department at Paddle, with each area of the business having their own dedicated data/operations team. Not only does it this means smarter workflows and automations, but it allows everyone to have quick access to insights and adapt to a fast changing market. It makes our work smarter and brings confidence to our decision making.

Operations & Strategy

Data-driven decisions

Dec 2020

I joined in an entry level role and have been given invaluable support and training at every step of the way to shape my career. There is a real sense of "If you want something, go get it" and it is inspiring to see the people who have come in the business and grown into roles they didn't dare dream of in the beginning.

Operations & Strategy

Career progression

Dec 2020

It is the team that makes a company and the spirit at Paddle is one of the greatest reasons to work here. The excitement, support and imagination of my peers is what inspires me every day and it makes work fun.

Operations & Strategy

Team energy

Dec 2020

Paddle is a fast-moving, constantly improving environment. With this, there is always an opportunity to make meaningful changes that influence the future of Paddle.

Software Engineering

Meaningful work

Dec 2020

2020 has been a tough year for us all and the instant shift to fully remote definitely presented it's challenges to our team. However, the passion and willingness to drive our company forward in such difficult times were completely inspiring to me. We truly have a dedicated and hard work team.

Software Engineering

Hard working team

Dec 2020

2020 was all about building up the momentum for us, 2021 is when we execute on our exciting growth plans. For Product and Engineering, this means we will be doubling our department size, and with this will come great opportunities for career progression, scaling our platform and greenfield projects. 2021 is going to be a fantastic year for Paddle!

Software Engineering

Growing fast

Dec 2020

Joined Paddle as a fresh graduate two years ago and the learning has never stopped! Paddle is a great place to gain valuable experience in the different areas of finance alongside the flexibility to manage work and study!

Finance, Legal & Compliance

Opportunities to learn

Dec 2020

Paddle allows flexible working conditions which gives me the ability to have a great work life balance and spend quality time with my family.

Finance, Legal & Compliance

Flexible working

Dec 2020

When I joined Paddle it was always clear what my career path will look like and the opportunity to grow in different areas was always given. It is clear what I need to do to reach my goal in Finance and great support is provided by my manager!

Finance, Legal & Compliance

Career progression

Dec 2020

You hear 'open and transparent' as values for every other company these days, but how many follow through with this? Paddle doesn't need this as a value - it simply lives and breathes this no matter which department you work for. Everyone is encouraged to speak up about their opinions, and regular surveys are taken that execute on these opinions and ideas in real time. I'm constantly asked for feedback in meetings, and it's not just taken and forgotten, you can see it shape the future of the company day-by-day.

Operations & Strategy

My opinions are valued

Dec 2020

Even in the challenging year that has been 2020, employee wellbeing has maintained a top priority at Paddle. We are offered support through both internal and external resources (free counselling and therapy - even if you just need a chat). Unlimited holiday - which is highly encouraged to take, and an allowance for personal development.

Operations & Strategy

Focus on employee wellbeing

Dec 2020

In a year like 2020, most companies fought to survive. Paddle not only did this, but it went above and beyond and raised a Series C during the year of a global pandemic. This is testament to the whole team who work so hard, but moreover, are incredibly passionate about what we do. The momentum built around this has been more welcome than ever, and I couldn't be more excited to be aboard this rocketship.

Operations & Strategy

Growing fast

Dec 2020

Jobs (6)

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Software Engineering

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