Annual Report

What a difference a decade makes

At Adyen we build everything for the long term — products, partnerships, and teams. Always moving at speed, with our gaze pointed firmly forward. Allow me to take a look back, just this once, as 2019 was the keystone year of a decade that brought a lot of change for Adyen.

In 2010 we were a fledgling operation with a team of around a dozen. Then came our first successful partnership with an enterprise merchant, some key hires, some successful product launches, some less successful product launches, and thanks to our relentless execution: growth. Now, in 2020, Adyen is a global company with over 1200 people — and 80 nationalities — across more than 20 offices from São Paulo to Sydney. We learned a lot along the way, and we have a lot to be proud of, as the industry around us changed a lot too.

During the past decade, we saw the continued rise of ecommerce in an increasingly globalized world, an acceleration in innovation across the whole industry, and on the consumer end — still shifting shopper expectations to the point where brands can no longer afford to split their online and in-store activities. All of these trends create an opportunity for us to help our merchants adapt to this new reality. To be at the forefront of so much change is tremendously exciting.

Since 2011 we’ve been steadily growing the company — profitably — and now increasingly at scale. I’m proud to report that our long-term outlook has not changed; nor has our speed of execution. Our early success was due to us being able to marry engineering and sales. We have been able to keep that union intact throughout our growth trajectory. Keeping our culture has always been, and will continue to be, the focal point for us as a management team. Without our culture, we would not have seen the same level of success. At times, our bets didn’t pan out, like when we tried our hand at POS shuttles (the images of which still haunt us), but our speed-based culture has always allowed us to pivot back into the right direction quickly.

I sense that some of our investors may have become accustomed to a certain predictability in our letters to shareholders and in our financial results — the unexciting reality of sustained profitable growth, one instance where boring is good. The reality, however, is that these results are the product of an incredibly disciplined team consistently executing on our strategy. This is not something we take for granted, and it doesn’t come easily.And 2019 was another year in which we delivered on our promise. We helped our merchants grow to new heights, processing €240 billion on their behalf. We were also able to onboard leading companies in new verticals, and opened new offices in Mumbai and Tokyo. As we continue to grow into new geographies and verticals on the back of merchant demand, we are well on our way to having the full strength of Adyen available across the globe, and in every sales channel.I am writing this in March 2020. This new decade has gotten off to a turbulent start with the outbreak of COVID-19. We are seeing lockdowns in countries around the world, and changes are entering our way of life. We are working hard to help our merchants function in this new environment, with the best interest of our employees and society at large in mind. I remain confident in society’s resilience during these challenging times.With the team now 100 times larger than it was at the start of the last decade, I look forward to another decade of growing Adyen. We’re all proud of what we’ve built together, and thank you for your continued support.