Investment: “Ryft raises €23 million”
Manchester-based payments company Ryft has raised €23 million in a Series B round led by Gresham House Ventures to accelerate its expansion across Europe and beyond.
The round included participation from existing investors Pembroke VCT and Ingenii Capital.
Founded in 2021 by Alex Mackenzie, Richard Kirby and Sadra Hosseini and headquartered in Manchester, Ryft builds payments solutions for marketplaces, platforms and multi-location businesses. Its platform helps customers manage seller onboarding and complex transaction flows, including recurring billing, automated split payments and cross-border payouts, through a single integration.
Since launch Ryft has partnered with Global Payments, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Nuvei. The company says it has tripled processing volume over the past 12 months and now serves more than 6,500 businesses, including Epos Now, Chaiwalla, the Disasters Emergency Committee, Daytrip and Sprive. Ryft previously raised a €6.6 million Series A in April 2025.
Ryft says the new funding will support its expansion across Europe and the US, accelerate product development and its move upmarket. As part of its European expansion the company has applied for a full EU licence from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) to enable passporting across the European Economic Area.
“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. Payments have been dominated by a small number of incumbents for a long time. We want to provide a powerful and efficient alternative to businesses, not just in Europe, but globally.”
“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. 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. As commerce shifts to instant, multi-party platforms and increasingly agent-initiated payments, ownership of the infrastructure rails becomes a question of national economic sovereignty, not just merchant cost. We’re backing Ryft because the UK needs domestic champions with payment architecture for the next era of commerce, and Ryft is one of them. Sadra, Alex, Richard and the wider team are executing at an impressive pace, and we are proud to back this category-defining Manchester FinTech.”
“Ryft’s success is 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.”
