On April 9, 2025, UK-based fintech startup Ryft announced a major milestone in its growth journey. The company secured $7.3 million in Series A funding to enhance its innovative payment-splitting platform. EdenBase led the funding round, and several high-profile PayPal executives participated as angel investors. This investment marks a significant moment in Ryft’s mission to simplify complex payment workflows for online marketplaces and booking platforms.
Understanding Ryft’s Core Offering
Ryft focuses on a niche yet rapidly growing need—automated payment-splitting infrastructure for multi-vendor platforms. Traditional payment systems often struggle when multiple parties require revenue from a single transaction. Ryft eliminates this bottleneck with its robust and developer-friendly solution.
The startup delivers a plug-and-play API that allows businesses to integrate advanced payment functionalities without building custom infrastructure. Their system supports real-time payouts, custom fee structures, and full compliance with financial regulations, including PSD2 and FCA guidelines. Ryft aims to replace clunky, outdated legacy systems with a modern approach that enables digital marketplaces to scale faster.
Why Marketplaces Need Ryft
Online marketplaces have exploded in popularity over the past decade. From e-commerce giants like Etsy and Not On The High Street to service-based platforms like Airbnb and TaskRabbit, these businesses rely on smooth, secure, and transparent payment flows. However, managing payments across buyers, sellers, service providers, and the platform itself often creates logistical nightmares.
Ryft solves these challenges by offering three core benefits:
- Instant Payment Splits – Platforms can instantly divide funds between vendors, service providers, and partners.
- Regulatory Compliance – Ryft handles licensing, KYC, and AML checks, ensuring that platforms stay compliant without extra overhead.
- Full API Customization – Developers can tailor the system to unique business logic with minimal friction.
By providing these features, Ryft positions itself as a critical backend infrastructure player for the next generation of digital commerce platforms.
What the Founders Are Saying
In a statement following the funding announcement, Ryft co-founder and CEO Sadra Hosseini explained the vision behind the startup:
“We built Ryft to empower digital platforms and marketplaces to scale without hitting regulatory or technological walls. Our infrastructure simplifies the complex world of payment orchestration, which enables businesses to focus on growth rather than backend logistics.”
Co-founder and CTO Sam Worthington added:
“From day one, our goal has been to remove friction from online payments. This new funding round will help us expand our product, build more integrations, and stay ahead in an industry that evolves at lightning speed.”
Details of the Funding Round
The $7.3 million Series A round signals strong investor confidence in Ryft’s business model and potential. EdenBase, a UK-based VC known for backing transformative digital infrastructure startups, led the round. Other participants included senior executives from PayPal, who recognized Ryft’s ability to disrupt a space they know well.
This funding brings Ryft’s total capital raised to over $10 million since its founding in 2022. The team plans to use the new capital to expand its engineering and product teams, accelerate its go-to-market strategy, and explore international markets.
How Ryft Plans to Use the Funding
Hosseini and Worthington plan to allocate the Series A funding strategically. The key areas of investment include:
- Team Expansion: Ryft aims to double its team size over the next 12 months. The company will focus on hiring engineers, compliance specialists, and sales personnel.
- Product Development: The team will continue refining its payment orchestration engine. They will add new features, enhance reporting capabilities, and introduce more integrations with third-party platforms like Stripe, PayPal, and Braintree.
- Global Expansion: While Ryft currently focuses on UK and EU markets, the team has already laid the groundwork for North American expansion. The new funding gives them the flexibility to move faster into those markets.
- Partner Ecosystem: Ryft also plans to grow its partner ecosystem by collaborating with banks, fintech firms, and compliance providers.
Competitive Landscape
Ryft enters a competitive market with players like Adyen, Stripe Connect, and Mangopay already serving large marketplaces. However, Ryft sets itself apart through its razor-sharp focus on marketplaces and booking platforms rather than generic payment solutions.
Unlike broader providers, Ryft offers:
- End-to-end compliance support.
- Fast onboarding for vendors with built-in KYC flows.
- Real-time payments using modern architecture (e.g., Open Banking APIs).
- Transparent pricing with no hidden fees.
This vertical focus enables Ryft to serve specific customer pain points more deeply than generalist competitors.
Use Cases and Clients
Ryft currently serves clients in the e-commerce, travel, events, and gig economy sectors. Their platform supports platforms that manage multiple vendors, such as:
- Boutique online marketplaces that need to split revenue between creators and the platform.
- Booking engines that must distribute earnings between hosts, tour operators, and partners.
- Event management platforms that handle ticketing revenue and payouts to performers or organizers.
These clients rely on Ryft to avoid regulatory headaches, streamline operations, and provide better payout experiences to their users.
Why Now?
Several trends make this the perfect time for Ryft to scale:
- The Rise of the Creator Economy – More platforms serve independent creators, and these creators want instant, transparent payouts.
- Digital Marketplaces Boom – COVID-19 accelerated the shift to online services. Now, marketplaces represent a larger share of global e-commerce.
- Regulatory Complexity – New laws, especially in Europe, have made payment compliance tougher. Businesses want tools that help them stay compliant without hiring internal legal teams.
Ryft sits at the intersection of all these trends, offering an infrastructure solution that businesses cannot ignore.
Looking Ahead
Ryft has ambitious goals for 2025 and beyond. With a strong team, investor backing, and a clearly defined niche, the company is well-positioned to become a leader in payment orchestration for digital platforms.
Its founders remain focused on solving real problems for real businesses. They don’t chase hype or bloated valuations. Instead, they aim to build a resilient infrastructure company that empowers the next generation of online marketplaces to grow with confidence.
As Hosseini said during the announcement:
“We’re not just building a fintech tool. We’re building the plumbing for the future of digital commerce.”
With this new injection of capital and growing momentum, Ryft looks ready to do just that.