Ryft’s £20m Series B targets a Malta licence and US entry

Ryft has raised £20 million in a Series B round led by Gresham House Ventures, and the most consequential line in the announcement is not the money — it is the licence application sitting behind it. The Manchester payments-infrastructure firm has filed for a full payments authorisation with the Malta Financial Services Authority, which would let it passport marketplace payments across the European Economic Area. That is the real product being bought here: regulatory perimeter.

Marketplace payments is one of the few corners of fintech where the commercial question and the compliance question are the same question. If a platform touches the money between buyer and seller, a regulator expects an authorised party in the flow holding those funds, running seller Know Your Customer (KYC) checks and safeguarding balances that do not belong to it. Platforms buy split-payment rails to avoid becoming that party themselves. Ryft is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as an authorised payment institution under firm reference number 972895 as Ryft Pay Ltd, and its pitch is that it absorbs the obligation the platform does not want.

The round: £20 million, no valuation disclosed

The round, announced on September 17, 2026, was led by Gresham House Ventures with participation from existing backers Pembroke VCT and Ingenii Capital, alongside NPIF II-PXN Equity Finance from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II. No valuation was disclosed, and none should be inferred — this is a growth round reported by size and lead, not by price. It follows a £5.7 million Series A in April 2025.

Related:Saudi fintech Tabby raises $233m at a $6.5bn valuation

Ryft says the capital funds expansion into Europe and the United States, an accelerated product roadmap and a push into larger enterprise accounts. The company was founded in 2021 by Sadra Hosseini, Alex Mackenzie and Richard Kirby, and now serves more than 6,500 businesses after tripling processing volume over the past year. Named customers include Epos Now, Chaiiwala, the Disasters Emergency Committee, Daytrip and Sprive. Its distribution partners read like an acquiring stack: Global Payments, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Nuvei.

Why safeguarding is the competitive line

The timing matters. The FCA’s supplementary safeguarding regime for payments and e-money firms, confirmed in policy statement PS25/12, took effect on May 7, 2026, adding record-keeping duties, resolution packs, monthly safeguarding returns and third-party diversification requirements. A tougher end-state regime imposing a statutory trust over relevant funds has been deferred for further consultation. The Industry Spread has tracked that direction of travel since the regulator first pressed for stronger safeguarding rules, and the practical effect is that carrying client money is now a heavier, more auditable business than it was two years ago.

That reshapes the competitive set. Stripe Connect remains the default for platforms starting out. Adyen for Platforms competes at the top of the market with local acquiring licences across Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific. Mangopay, the incumbent European specialist, operates as an FCA-authorised electronic money institution. Ryft’s differentiation is narrower and more specific: a payment institution permission rather than e-money, volume-tiered pricing rather than flat rates, and unlimited sellers per split. None of those rivals has publicly responded to the raise.

Quotes and context

“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,” said Sadra Hosseini, chief executive and co-founder of Ryft. Rohit Mathur, a partner at Gresham House Ventures, framed it as a sovereignty argument: “We’re backing Ryft because the UK needs domestic champions with payment architecture for the next era of commerce.” Lucy Rigby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, called the raise “a vote of confidence in Manchester’s thriving fintech sector”.

The ministerial enthusiasm has a backdrop. UK fintech investment fell to £1.8 billion in the first half of 2026 from £5 billion a year earlier, across 205 deals versus 281, the lowest level KPMG has recorded in a decade. Against that, a £20 million B-round for infrastructure is a genuine signal — and it fits the pattern set by Yuno’s $45 million Series B, where capital went to plumbing rather than consumer brands.

Expect the Malta decision, not the funding, to determine whether this round works. If the MFSA authorisation lands, Ryft can onboard EEA sellers under its own permission and price against Mangopay directly; if it stalls, European growth depends on partner licences and thinner margins. With PSD3 raising the liability stakes for firms in the payment chain, holding the permission yourself is becoming the moat.