Europe's Stripe rival saw $20 billion wiped off its value in a single day. Here's what's going on

Spirits were precocious erstwhile Dutch payments steadfast Adyen floated connected the Amsterdam Stock Exchange successful 2018.

The institution was riding a question of growth successful Europe's exertion assemblage and snapping up contention from its mega U.S. rival PayPal.

Since then, the institution has weathered a turbulent ride, including a planetary pandemic that knocked volumes from question clients significantly.

The steadfast expanded aggressively successful North America, wherever immoderate of its astir high-profile merchants are based, and hired hundreds of employees to turbocharge growth.

As the macroeconomic situation shifted successful 2023, Adyen's maturation strategy has been challenged successful a large way.

Company shares plummeted 39% connected Thursday, erasing 18 cardinal euros ($39 billion) from Adyen's marketplace capitalization, arsenic investors dumped the banal aft the steadfast reported its slowest gross maturation connected record.

The banal closed down a further 2.9% Friday aft the precipitous diminution of Thursday.

Identified arsenic 1 of the top 200 planetary fintech companies globally by CNBC and Statista, Adyen is a payments services firm that works with customers including Netflix, Meta and Spotify.

It besides sells point-of-sale systems for carnal stores and handles payments online and in-store.

More than a processor, Adyen is what is known arsenic a outgo gateway — meaning that it uses exertion to alteration merchants to instrumentality paper payments and transactions done online stores.

The institution takes a tiny chopped disconnected each woody that runs done its platform.

It was co-founded by Pieter van der Does, the firm's main enforcement officer, and Arnout Schuijff, erstwhile main exertion officer.

Adyen past week reported results for the archetypal fractional of the twelvemonth that came successful good beneath expectations. The company's gross of 739.1 cardinal euros ($804.3 million) for the play was up 21% twelvemonth implicit twelvemonth — but showed Adyen's slowest income maturation connected record.

Analyst had expected 853.6 cardinal euros of gross and 40% of year-on-year growth, according to Eikon Refinitiv forecasts.

Adyen has typically been viewed arsenic a maturation stock, aft consistently reporting gross maturation of 26% each half-year play since its 2018 banal marketplace debut.

"With higher inflation, starring to higher involvement rates, determination has been a spot of a displacement of absorption — little absorption connected growth, much absorption connected bottommost line," Adyen Chief Financial Officer Ethan Tandowsky told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" Thursday.

Tandowsky insisted that the institution had "limited churn" and that nary of its ample customers had near the platform.

But concerns that competitors successful section markets, peculiarly successful North America, are muscling successful with cheaper offerings person heavy weighed connected institution prospects.

Adyen said successful a missive to shareholders this week that its EBITDA (earnings earlier interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) borderline fell to 43% successful the archetypal fractional of 2023 from 59% successful the aforesaid play a twelvemonth ago.

The institution said this was down to softer maturation successful North America and to higher employment costs specified arsenic wages, arsenic it ramped up hiring during the period.

Tandowsky insisted the institution had much of a absorption connected "functionality" than its peers, adjacent though those peers whitethorn connection cheaper services.

"The ratio of which we tin make caller functionality, functionality that retired performs our peers volition pb america to gaining the marketplace stock that we expect."

At the bosom of Adyen's woes is simply a concern heavy babelike connected customers' willingness to instrumentality to a azygous level for their each their outgo needs. The institution besides needs to person those users that what it sells is amended than what's connected connection from a competitor.

In its half-year 2023 report, Adyen said that galore of its North American customers are cutting backmost connected costs to upwind economical pressures similar rising involvement rates and higher inflation.

"Enterprise businesses prioritized outgo optimization, portion contention for integer volumes successful the portion provided savings implicit functionality," Adyen said successful a missive to shareholders.

"These dynamics are not new, and online volumes are easiest to modulation backmost and forth. Amid these developments, we consciously continued to terms for the worth we bring."

Adyen besides said its profitability had suffered from a propulsion to aggressively ramp up hiring. EBITDA came successful astatine 320 cardinal euros, down 10% from the archetypal fractional of 2022.

Adyen added 551 employees successful the archetypal fractional of the year, taking its full full-time worker number up to 3,883.

Some of the company's rivals person chopped backmost connected hiring significantly. In November 2022, Stripe laid disconnected 14% of its workforce, oregon astir 1,100 people.

The main situation Adyen present faces is contention from challengers that are consenting to connection little rates than it provides.

Speaking with the Financial Times connected Thursday, Adyen CEO Pieter van der Does said that merchants are "trying to research section providers" to chopped down connected costs.

"It's not that we're shrinking — we're conscionable increasing astatine a slower rate," helium added.

Adyen has historically been a thin business, opting to prosecute less radical wide than its main rival Stripe, which has astir treble the staffing.

Simon Taylor, caput of strategy astatine Sardine.ai, said that Adyen mightiness look a "natural ceiling" to what concern size it tin scope earlier having to trim its margins to turn again.

"Ultimately they're taxable to the aforesaid macro headwinds everyone successful e-commerce is," Taylor told CNBC. "And they inactive grew 21%. Incumbents would termination for that."