Fintech Ryft raises £5.7M Series A to challenge Stripe and Ayden

Ryft, a Manchester-based fintech offering embedded payment solutions for digital platforms and marketplaces, has raised £5.7M in Series A funding to advance its technology and offer acquiring banks and merchants an alternative to dominant payment providers like Stripe Connect and Adyen. The round brings Ryft’s total investment to £7.4M.

The investment round, which was led by EdenBase, saw participation from GPOS Investments, British Business Bank, Pembroke VCT, Sidebyside, and Ingenii VC. Strategic angel investors, including executives at PayPal, also joined the round.

Ryft plans to use the new funding to support its international expansion and grow its team.

Founded by Sadra Hosseini and Alex Mackenzie, Ryft aims to address a gap in the market for compliant and efficient payment solutions designed for the needs of marketplaces and platforms. The company's technology enables acquiring banks, such as Clearhaus, to split payments and process payouts at a much lower cost than alternatives like Stripe and Adyen.

Ryft's solution is designed to cater to the growing complexity of online marketplaces, where transactions often involve multiple parties, and payments need to be split according to various conditions. The company’s platform also allows for features like delayed payments, where funds can be held in escrow until specific conditions are met. According to Ryft, businesses that have switched from Stripe report savings of up to 62 percent on payment fees.

"We’ve created a system that allows businesses to handle payments seamlessly, ensuring compliance and efficiency at scale,” said Sadra Hosseini, CEO and co-founder of Ryft. "Acquiring banks and most businesses were built for the one-to-one transactions of Commerce 1.0. However, in the era of Commerce 2.0, where transactions within a single marketplace involve numerous parties, financial institutions are struggling to deliver payment operations that meet the evolving needs of their customers."

"Ryft is solving a critical challenge in the payments space with a highly scalable solution," said Jason Druker, Chief Commercial Officer at SFC Capital. "We continue to be impressed by the team’s execution and vision, and we’re excited to keep supporting them as they scale."

"Sadra and Alex are tried and tested entrepreneurs with first-hand experience of the headaches that finding a payment partner brings," said Eric Van der Kleij, General Partner at EdenBase. "They have created a unique solution that allows business owners to focus on growth, secure in the knowledge that their payments are being handled in a compliant, quick and cost-effective way."