Payments company Ryft lands £20m funding for expansion push

A Manchester-based payments company which counts the Disasters Emergency Committee among its users has landed a £20m funding round anchored by Gresham House, the privately held asset manager.

Sky News understands that Ryft, which builds payment solutions for marketplaces, platforms and multi-location businesses, will announce its Series B round on Friday.

The company counts more than 6,500 businesses as customers, and plans to use its new funding to expand across Europe and the US.

Money latest: Energy bills forecast to leap 25% in January

Existing investors Pembroke VCT and Ingenii Capital, and new backing from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II, were also part of the fundraising.

Ryft said it had tripled its processing volumes over the last year, and has applied for a full EU payments licence from the Malta Financial Services Authority - a move that would allow it to passport its services across the European Economic Area.

Lucy Rigby, the economic secretary to the Treasury, claimed the fundraising was "a vote of confidence in Manchester's thriving fintech sector and shows how British businesses can start, scale and compete on the global stage".

"This government is backing the industries and companies like Ryft that are creating jobs, attracting investment and driving good growth in every postcode," she said.

Ryft chief executive and co-founder Sadra Hosseini said the company aimed to challenge the dominance of "a small number of incumbents".

"This round of investment means we can take what we've built in the UK into new European markets and compete on the global stage," Mr Hosseini said.

The company helps customers manage complex transaction flows such as automated split payments and cross-border payouts

Its partners include Global Payments, Visa, Mastercard and American Express.

"Modern commerce runs on platforms, from marketplaces and franchises, to creators, and, in time, AI agents, but the payments foundation beneath it was built for a two-party world that no longer exists," Rohit Mathur, partner at Gresham House Ventures, said.

"Ryft is the rare UK-built, FCA-regulated fintech designed for multi-party payments from the ground up, and its best customers are compounding volumes over 100% a year on the platform."

Fred Ursell, head of investments at Pembroke Investment Managers, added: "Splitting a payment cleanly between multiple parties is slow, technical, heavily-regulated work, which is precisely why the incumbents left it half-served for a decade, and precisely why it was worth building properly."

The valuation at which Ryft had secured its new funding was unclear on Thursday.

(c) Sky News 2026: Payments company Ryft lands £20m funding for expansion push