Diversity & Inclusion
SumUp has always been a company that openly supports diversity, inclusion, and belonging as part of our core beliefs. Being inclusive is a human rights issue and just the right thing to do and it is also good for our business. Only if we are diverse can we find the best talent, understand our merchants’ needs, and offer the best services and solutions to help them build thriving businesses.
What does Diversity and Inclusion mean at SumUp? Diversity refers to our own uniqueness; or the differences that make each of us unique, such as backgrounds, identities, orientations, ethnicities, age, and abilities. Inclusion is the conscious action of including someone or a group of people in our community. It is not only about the culture but also about representation within a company and in the leadership teams. Belonging means being able to fully be yourself, feeling appreciated, and having a voice. And of course, psychological safety plays a crucial role in a culture of inclusion. It refers to the extent to which people feel safe to speak up, challenge each other, and share their points of view in a constructive way. It also means growing together through candid feedback. At SumUp, our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion are built around our values, furthering our efforts to have a positive impact on the world and empower people and their communities: Founder’s Mentality We believe that sustainable entrepreneurship will help to protect the environment. We focus on projects that directly impact the environment or indirectly do so by educating people and communities about sustainable living. With our financial contributions to different non-profit organisations, we have helped to create an agricultural school and provide space for entrepreneurs to sell their products in Brazil. We are educating women to become entrepreneurs and empower them to sell sustainable products in rural India.
Team First We are convinced that diverse teams help us to better understand our merchants' needs and create the best products and services. And we believe that we can only successfully create a diverse and inclusive team, if we embed D&I throughout the entire SumUpper lifecycle, from attracting new talent to developing and retaining them. We focus mainly on education and speak about topics like Neurodiversity, Gender Diversity, LGBTQ, Racism, Domestic Violence and Abuse and Mental Health. We also work on upskilling SumUppers to become inclusive leaders and better allies. Our Inclusive Leadership Workshop discusses topics such as unconscious bias, privilege and microaggressions.
We Care We know that the world is not equal and fair and where you were born and your access to education plays an enormous role the opportunities you encounter in life. Therefore, we are committed to supporting communities from less privileged backgrounds and focusing on unemployed youth. In Latin America, we provide free tech education, with the ambition that 80% of participants will find employment afterward. We also finance a tech education platform which reaches 10,000 children in rural India every year. We believe free education and work opportunities will help social and economic mobility.
We acknowledge that we all have biases and that discrimination against various groups exists. It is human to be drawn towards people who are similar to us and who confirm our values and upbringing. Therefore, we start by creating awareness around D&I and take action to remove biases. We seek to create safe spaces for people to speak up and challenge each other. We can all make mistakes and learn from one another. This implies that it is crucial that if a mistake has happened, to acknowledge it, apologise and learn from it. SumUp does not tolerate inappropriate and discriminatory behaviours.
SumUp’s D&I vision and strategy
We understand that to be a company that is truly committed to creating diverse, inclusive, and safe spaces with impactful and scalable practices, we need to build a global function with a global D&I vision and strategy that also considers the differences in the various locations we operate in. This D&I function is very lean by design and intended to be an enabling, facilitating, and educating function, as the actual responsibility to build inclusive and diverse teams falls towards every SumUpper - especially our leaders.
It is up to every SumUpper to create a safe space and foster a diverse and inclusive team culture in which all feel a sense of belonging. A culture where all can bring their expertise, knowledge and perspectives, will help SumUp achieve its vision, mission and purpose, connecting millions of merchants and building a better world for SumUppers, our merchants and communities. SumUp’s D&I vision is to become a leading company in D&I that empowers the societies we serve and live in. SumUp wants to become a top global employer for Women, the LGBTQ+ community, different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds and be inclusive of people with different abilities and through different life stages. Of course, diversity covers multiple layers and dimensions and although SumUp always considers intersectionality and different dimensions with the main focus is on women, followed by the LGBTQ+ community and race. To achieve our vision, SumUp’s D&I team, leaders and SumUppers are taking various actions:
We always aim to promote self-organization and empower SumUppers who are passionate about diversity and inclusion to organically drive internal initiatives. At SumUp, we have various networks that regularly come together including Women Circle, SumAfro, PrideClub, TQI and Neurodiversity Networks.
If you are curious to hear more about what SumUp has been doing, you can see our progress, data insights and a summary of our actions in the videos on our career website and get inspired by our SumUppers (Voice of SumUp).