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§ Private Profile · New York City, NY, USA
Ryft is a technology company.
Ryft delivers specialized payment solutions for marketplaces, platforms, and omnichannel businesses. Its comprehensive platform streamlines payment acceptance, rapid seller onboarding, flexible delayed and recurring options, and transaction monetization. This technology empowers clients to efficiently manage complex payment flows and optimize their financial operations.
Founded in 2021 by Richard, Alex Mackenzie, and Sadra Hosseini, Ryft emerged from their experience with the marketplace app Butlr. They observed existing external payment processors limited transaction monetization and scalability. This direct insight spurred them to build Ryft as the purpose-built payment infrastructure platform businesses truly required.
Ryft primarily serves digital marketplaces, various platform businesses, and omnichannel enterprises. Its core mission is to empower these entities to become their own payment processors, reducing reliance on traditional providers. The company envisions granting clients enhanced financial control and strategic advantages within their payment ecosystems.
Ryft has raised $17.3M across 4 funding rounds.
Ryft has raised $17.3M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Ryft is a UK-based, FCA-licensed payment services provider (PSP) specializing in embedded payments for marketplaces, digital platforms, and retailers. It builds a decentralized payment platform that automates complex multi-sided transactions, including split payments, escrow, recurring billing, and seller onboarding, helping businesses monetize payments while complying with PSD2 and UK regulations.[1][2][3][4] Serving over 1,500 businesses primarily in the UK and Europe, Ryft solves the pain points of high fees, complexity, and limited customization from incumbents like Stripe Connect or Adyen, offering up to 70% cost savings via volume-based pricing, 99.9% uptime, and features like multi-currency support and omnichannel processing.[2][3][4] Since its 2022 seed round, Ryft has hit profitability in under 2.5 years, secured partnerships with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and others, and raised a £5 million Series A in 2025, fueling European expansion and team growth.[2][3]
Ryft was founded in 2019 by marketplace operators Alex Mackenzie, Sadra Hosseini, and Richard (CTO), who spun it out from their prior venture, Butlr—a mobile ordering and payments app for venues and restaurants that scaled to 1 million users during COVID.[3] Frustrated by reliance on external processors like Checkout.com and Stripe, which imposed high fees, compliance hurdles, and scalability limits under PSD2, the founders created Ryft as the solution they needed: a specialized PSP for marketplaces.[1][3][4] Key milestones include going live with its first client in November (post-Butlr acquisition by OrderPay), securing an FCA license, a £1.7 million seed round led by SFC, banking partnerships, and the 2025 £5 million Series A led by Edenbase (with Pembroke VCT participation).[2][3] This operator-led origin has driven rapid traction, from seed to profitability and global partnerships in under three years.[2]
Ryft rides the Commerce 2.0 wave, enabling platforms to decentralize and own payments amid the $20 trillion global market's shift from centralized giants to embedded, marketplace-native solutions.[2] Timing is ideal post-PSD2 and amid open banking rises, where regulations favor compliant innovators while high fees (e.g., Stripe's) squeeze margins for scaling marketplaces.[1][3][4] Market forces like digital wallet growth, cross-border e-commerce, and AI-driven automation play to Ryft's strengths in multi-currency, omnichannel processing, and partnerships with Visa/Mastercard/Amex.[2][3] By empowering platforms to monetize transactions and reduce incumbent reliance, Ryft influences the ecosystem, accelerating marketplace growth in Europe and challenging Stripe/Adyen dominance.[2][4]
Ryft's operator roots, profitability, and fresh Series A position it for aggressive scaling: expect deepened European offices, more acquirer integrations, and AI-enhanced fraud/risk tools to capture share in the exploding embedded payments space.[2][3] Trends like real-time payments, crypto interoperability, and regulatory tailwinds will propel growth, potentially evolving Ryft into a full-stack fintech for global platforms. With its bold disruption of legacy models already yielding partnerships and uptime leadership, Ryft exemplifies how specialized PSPs can turn payments from cost center to revenue engine, modernizing flows for the next wave of digital marketplaces.[2][4]
Ryft has raised $17.3M across 4 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $8.0M Seed in July 2025.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 1, 2025 | $8M Seed | Index Ventures | Assaf Rappaport, Nkechi Iregbulem, Bessemer Venture Partners | Announced |
| Apr 9, 2025 | $7.7M Series A | Edenbase | — | Announced |
| Aug 1, 2022 | $1M Seed | — | Bigspring, Pareto Holdings, Quiet Capital, SFC Capital, Arash Ferdowsi, Brendan O'driscoll, Gabriel Jarrosson, Kunal Shah, Mike Krieger, Nate Matherson, Samvit Ramadurgam | Announced |
| Oct 1, 2020 | $560K Seed | — | Pitchdrive, Toon Coppens, Willem Delbare | Announced |
Ryft has raised $17.3M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Ryft's investors include Index Ventures, Assaf Rappaport, Nkechi Iregbulem, Bessemer Venture Partners, Edenbase, BigSpring, Pareto Holdings, Quiet Capital, SFC Capital, Arash Ferdowsi, Brendan O'Driscoll, Gabriel Jarrosson.