Ryft, the Manchester-based payments company, has raised £20 million in a Series B round led by Gresham House Ventures.

Most payments infrastructure was built for a simple exchange between two parties, a buyer and a seller. Marketplaces, franchises and software platforms work differently. They need money divided between several parties, sellers onboarded and verified, and payouts sent across borders, all under heavy regulation. Gresham House partner Rohit Mathur argues that incumbents left this work half-finished for a decade because it is slow and technically demanding.

Ryft, founded in 2021 by Sadra Hosseini, Alex Mackenzie and Richard Kirby, sells a single integration that covers that ground. Hosseini is chief executive. The platform handles seller onboarding, recurring billing, automated split payments and cross-border payouts, and lets merchants earn extra revenue on the transactions they process. Earlier this month it added FX conversion and payouts in more than 35 currencies. Ryft has partnerships with Global Payments, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Nuvei.

More than 6,500 businesses now use the platform, including Epos Now, Chaiwalla, the Disasters Emergency Committee, Daytrip and Sprive. Processing volume tripled over the past 12 months, and Gresham House says Ryft's best customers are growing their volumes by more than 100% a year. The company previously raised a £1.2 million seed round in 2022 and a £5.7 million Series A in 2025, and describes the new round as the largest UK payments Series B of 2026.

Existing investors Pembroke VCT and Ingenii Capital took part, and PXN Ventures joined as a new backer through the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II. The money will go towards expansion in Europe and the US, faster product development and a move upmarket to high-growth and enterprise customers. Ryft has applied to the Malta Financial Services Authority for a full EU licence, which would let it passport its services across the European Economic Area. Valuation was not disclosed. Hosseini said the round lets Ryft take its UK product into new markets and "compete on the global stage."

Sources