Sadra Hosseini

Sadra Hosseini is an Iranian-British serial entrepreneur and the Co-Founder and CEO of Ryft, a Manchester-based payments platform specialising in automated split payments and compliance infrastructure for marketplaces and digital platforms. A three-time founder, Sadra has built and scaled multiple ventures, including Butlr, a restaurant ordering app that was successfully acquired by OrderPay, and Luxe London, a luxury tech platform that he took from startup to multi-million pound revenue in under two and a half years.

The experience of running Butlr — and struggling to find a payment provider that could handle the complexity and cost of marketplace transactions — directly inspired the creation of Ryft. Co-founded in 2021 alongside Alex Mackenzie, Ryft provides a PSD2-compliant payments platform that enables marketplaces to automate split payments, onboard merchants, manage payouts, and generate commission — all under a single FCA-licensed infrastructure. The platform offers next-day payouts at a flat transaction fee, competing directly with providers like Stripe Connect at a fraction of the cost.

Ryft raised £1.2 million in seed funding in 2022 led by SFC Capital, subsequently secured its FCA licence, and in 2025 closed a £5.7 million Series A led by EdenBase. The company has built partnerships with American Express, Clearhaus, and Worldpay, and has reached profitability — growing its gross merchandise value threefold year-on-year. Sadra leads the business from Manchester, where he believes the city's talent pool, cost base, and collaborative culture give startups a meaningful edge over London.