Ryft Raises £20 Million to Expand Multi-Party Payments in Europe and the US

Fresh capital for a broader payments market

Ryft’s £20 million Series B gives the Manchester payments company fresh capital to pursue European and US expansion as demand grows for payment systems built around platforms with multiple sellers and payees. Processing volume tripled over the past 12 months, and the company says it now serves more than 6,500 commercial clients. Those figures suggest the business has found a use case with room to grow, though they don’t show how much volume comes from repeat customers, how revenue is developing or whether growth is profitable.

The distinction matters. A rise in processing volume can show that more transactions are passing through a system, but it doesn’t by itself reveal the economics behind them. For a payments company, the quality of that growth depends on factors such as customer retention, the costs of supporting each transaction and the work required to keep payment flows reliable. Ryft hasn’t provided those details here, so the latest figures are evidence of activity rather than a complete measure of business performance.

Gresham House Ventures led the round. Existing investors Pembroke VCT and Ingenii Capital also participated, with NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance joining through the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II. The financing brings Ryft’s total funding to about £27 million. Pembroke’s Fred Ursell said this was the firm’s third investment in Ryft and its largest to date.

Repeat backing from an existing investor can signal confidence in a company’s progress, while the new lead investor adds another source of capital and scrutiny. Still, the size of a funding round doesn’t settle the commercial question. The capital gives Ryft more capacity to pursue its plans; the company will need to show that spending it on expansion can produce durable business in markets where payment providers must earn the trust of platforms and their users.

Funding backs international expansion

Ryft has applied to the Malta Financial Services Authority for a full European Union payments licence. If granted, the licence would allow the company to passport its services across the European Economic Area. The application is a step in the expansion plan, not an approval, and the distinction is central to the story: Ryft has set out a route into the region, but it hasn’t yet secured the permission it’s seeking.

For a payments provider, entering new markets involves more than making a product available in another country. The company must be able to support the payment activity it offers, handle the operational requirements attached to it and serve customers whose needs may vary across markets. A licence could open a wider service area, but it wouldn’t itself establish demand or guarantee that expansion will be commercially successful.

CEO and co-founder Sadra Hosseini said the funding would help Ryft take its UK operation into European markets and compete internationally. The company was founded in 2021 by Hosseini, Alex Mackenzie and Richard Kirby. The ambition is broad; execution will be more specific, requiring Ryft to turn its existing product and customer relationships into a service that works for platforms operating across borders.

Its product targets marketplaces, software-as-a-service platforms and businesses operating across multiple locations. These businesses often need to route funds among sellers, service providers and other parties, a task that can strain payment systems designed for a buyer and a single merchant. Ryft offers a unified API intended to manage those flows. In practical terms, the pitch is that a platform can connect payment functions through one interface while handling more than a straightforward purchase and refund.

That problem is real in category terms, but the product’s value will depend on how well it fits each customer’s operations. Platforms may need to onboard participants, divide payments, manage recurring charges and pay recipients across borders. Each added function can make the system more useful, and each can add complexity for the provider responsible for keeping transactions clear and dependable. If you’re working in this space, the relevant question is how much of that complexity Ryft can absorb without making integration or day-to-day support harder.

Platform payments drive the product case

The company’s FCA-regulated infrastructure supports split payments, seller onboarding and recurring billing, as well as cross-border payouts in multiple currencies. It also gives platform operators the option to earn revenue from transactions processed through the system. Taken together, those features aim to address both sides of the platform payment problem: moving money to the right participants and helping the platform build payment activity into its own business model.

That breadth may make the offer more compelling to businesses that would otherwise assemble separate services for different payment tasks. It also raises the bar for the provider. A unified API is a technical proposition, but customers will judge it by whether the payment flows work as expected and whether the system can support their operational needs. More features don’t automatically mean less friction. The details of implementation and ongoing service matter.

Gresham House Ventures partner Rohit Mathur framed the market shift around commerce taking place through platforms, with AI agents potentially becoming another source of transactions. He argued that payment infrastructure built for two-party purchases may not suit services that need to distribute funds among several participants. That’s a plausible explanation for why platform-specific systems could attract interest: the underlying transaction can involve more parties and more steps than a direct sale.

But the mention of AI agents is an emerging part of the investment case, not proof that they’re already a material source of Ryft’s volume. The more immediate product rationale is the need to manage payments for businesses with multiple sellers or payees. AI could add another type of transaction over time, but the company’s current traction and its ability to serve existing platform customers will be easier measures to assess.

This is more significant than it looks: payment infrastructure can shape how easily a platform brings new sellers or service providers into its business. (And this is the part most people overlook.) The payment layer isn’t just a checkout tool when funds must be allocated among participants; it can become part of the platform’s operating model. A useful product, then. But usefulness alone doesn’t establish how much customers will pay or how costly the service is to run.

Traction, execution and the next test

That demand remains a commercial thesis rather than a settled market outcome. Ryft’s tripled processing volume offers a sign of recent traction, while the new capital and pending licence application point to the costs and execution work involved in taking the model into additional markets. The company has evidence that its service is being used, but the available figures don’t show whether that use translates into lasting customer relationships or sustainable economics.

Ryft lists Epos Now, Chaiwalla, Daytrip, Sprive and the Disasters Emergency Committee among its clients. Its processing relationships include Global Payments, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Nuvei. Those connections provide access to established payment networks and providers as the company seeks to grow its multi-party offering. They also show that Ryft’s service sits within a broader payments chain, where successful growth depends on coordination among the platform, the payment provider and the networks or processors involved.

For an expanding provider, adding customers and markets can increase the range of payment flows it must support. That may make reliability and customer service as important to the growth story as the product’s feature set. A system built for platforms has to work across the needs of the platform and the people receiving payments through it. More activity means more opportunities to prove the model, and more operational demands to meet.

The next measure of progress will be whether Ryft can convert its UK traction into sustained business across Europe and the US, while handling the operational demands of multi-party payments at greater scale. The funding provides time and resources to attempt that expansion. The licence application remains pending, and the company’s published customer and processing figures leave open questions about revenue and profitability. A test of execution, not a verdict.

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