Checkout.com founder and tech billionaire Guillaume Pousaz has setup a new charitable foundation focused on education.One of Europe’s wealthiest tech billionaires Guillaume Pousaz, founder of payments startup Checkout.com, has quietly set up a charitable foundation with his wife Laure Pousaz.
Pousaz Philanthropies intends to support “quality and safe education” for children and had already partnered with education non-profits like Khan Academy and Global School Leaders, as well as think tank Center for Global Development, and the former hedge fund billionaire Christopher Chandler’s Luminos Fund, according to its website launched in September.
The foundation, which is based in the Channel Islands tax haven of Jersey, named San Francisco-based Sameer Sampat as its executive director. Sampat had previously cofounded Global School Leaders, which helps train teachers in Africa, South East Asia and Brazil. Pousaz Philanthropies also named Rebecca Goldman and Catherine St-Laurent as strategic advisors to the foundation. Goldman and St-Laurent cofounded philanthropic advisory firm Acora Partners in 2021, after Goldman worked as interim CEO of Time’s Up, and as director of film maker JJ Abrams’ family foundation. St-Laurent was the chief of staff for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and had worked for Melinda-French Gates’ philanthropic investment firm Pivotal.
The Dubai-based Pousaz registered the foundation with the Jersey Financial Services Commission in August 2021 just months after raising $230 million for Checkout.com in January 2021, one of Europe’s largest ever Series A round. The company's valuation exploded to $40 billion after raising an additional $1 billion in January 2022, with