Checkout.com founder Guillaume Pousaz has long found questions about the fintech’s relationship with adult websites “annoying,” as he put it in a 2020 interview with Sifted.
Previous coverage has suggested Checkout — which makes money by processing payments — worked with clients such as OnlyFans and Pornhub, deemed too risky by its competitors.
That didn’t stop its meteoric rise. In 2022, Checkout raised a mammoth $1bn round from investors including Tiger Global and Singapore’s GIC, crowning it one of Europe’s most valuable startups at $40bn. The title didn’t last: by the end of the same year, Checkout had slashed its valuation to $11bn, as rising interest rates started to hammer VC-backed fintechs.
Over the years, the company has sought to distance itself from the adult industry, telling Sifted in January that it’s now “a very minuscule part” of its overall portfolio.
Despite that, an ongoing lawsuit threatens to dredge up ‘vice’ industries again, by linking Checkout to Renderwison, a mysterious Cypriot entity historically listed on a mail-order bride website and once a client of Paxum Bank, known to serve the porn industry.
The lawsuit aims to get Checkout to open its books and show the scale of revenue generated from working with the entity.
Checkout told Sifted it did not comment on legal matters, or disclose specifics on client relationships. The fintech said it had strict requirements for clients, in line with both its “risk appetite and obligations as a financial institution.”
Uswipe vs. Checkout
Uswipe, an Israeli payments fintech, filed a case against Checkout to the High Court in London in November 2023. It alleges Uswipe introduced Checkout to a company called Renderwison in 2018 and expected commission for doing so, which it says it never received.
The case states Checkout stopped working with Renderwison in 2023. Checkout has not denied working with Renderwison. It is yet to file its defence in the ongoing case.
Uswipe is not suing for a financial settlement, but is instead petitioning Checkout to open its books and show the value of the work it did with Renderwison — something Uswipe says it has twice asked Checkout to do. If its case is successful, Uswipe could attempt to retrieve the commission it believes it’s owed.
A person familiar with the lawsuit told Sifted that the commission it could claim it’s owed is a few percentage points of the transaction value, and is “in the millions.”
So what does Renderwison do?
The case doesn’t say what Renderwison does, and its financial records are also vague, describing the company as involved in “the provision of agency services to related parties“. So Sifted had a look around.
Although Renderwison’s company filings give no information on the company’s business activities, they do disclose that, in 2023, its bankers included Paxum Bank, known for providing services to the porn industry. Paxum told Sifted it is not currently Renderwison’s bank.
A disappearing website
Cyprus-based Renderwison had been named as the “contact” on a website for a company called Hitwe, which describes itself as a dating app.
The website was taken down at the end of February, after Sifted put questions to Ukrainian app developer Genesis, which previously owned Renderwison according to financial records and Genesis itself. It’s not clear who currently owns Renderwison.
When it was online, Hitwe’s website was something of a puzzle. It described itself as a dating app but also lists “mail-order brides” from over 30 countries. Women are described via their age, height, weight, ethnicity and zodiac sign.
Several links on the website did not appear to work, including the sign-up form, so Sifted was not able to verify what options became available once you create a profile. The website mentioned paid membership options but it was unclear what you receive for the payment.
Genesis told Sifted it closed the “Hitwe project” in 2017 after cofounding the project in 2013. The company says the project is currently “non-operational” and it doesn’t employ a team to work on its development.
That said, an archived version of the Russian Apple App Store showed Renderwison’s Hitwe app available for download as recently as 2021, with four reviews of the app from after 2017.
Genesis noted that whilst the app technically remained online in this time, activity had “dwindled to near zero” as all development, maintenance and marketing had ceased. The app has now been removed.
On customer review site Trustpilot, there are 13 reviews of the website version — the latest of which is from last year.
Checkout’s terms and conditions
Checkout’s business policy doesn’t explicitly state whether it would work with mail-order bride businesses or that it won’t, though it does prohibit processing payments for “pornography and obscene materials.” The policy was the same in 2022 when Checkout worked with Renderwison.
Other payment processors specifically state that they will not process payments for mail-order bride websites.
Dutch payments company Adyen, for example, prohibits “Mail order spouse or international match-making services”, while US payments processor Stripe also lists mail-order brides under prohibited activities.
Companies providing mail-order bride services are typically a “red flag” for payment processors, says Katie Wheatley, partner at law firm Bindman’s, citing the potential for romance fraud — where somebody exchanges money for a bride that never arrives — or trafficking. There is no evidence of either in the case of Hitwe.
A spokesperson for Checkout said the company has “always conducted its operations in compliance with applicable laws and regulations and has zero tolerance for illegal activity on its network.”
The company told Sifted that if a business was found to be in breach of its terms of service, it took action, sometimes terminating the relationship — though it did not clarify if that happened in the case of Renderwison.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/lawsuit-checkout-uswipe-renderwison/
