Manchester-based payments technology company Ryft has raised £20 million in new funding as it prepares to expand its platform across Europe and the United States.
The Series B round was led by Gresham House Ventures, with existing investors Pembroke VCT and Ingenii Capital also participating alongside the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II.
Ryft develops payment infrastructure for marketplaces, platforms and businesses that need to send money to multiple parties from a single transaction.
The company says its technology is designed for a part of the payments market that traditional payment systems have not always handled efficiently.
Solving the multi-party payment problem
Traditional online payments are generally designed around a relatively simple transaction: one customer pays one business.
Modern digital platforms can be considerably more complicated.
A single transaction might need to be divided between a marketplace, seller, service provider, platform operator or other parties. Businesses may also need to handle automated payouts, refunds, commissions and cross-border transactions.
Ryft’s platform is designed to manage these more complicated payment flows.
The Manchester company currently serves more than 6,500 businesses, according to Sky News, and says its payment-processing volumes have tripled over the past year.
That growth has given the company a foundation for its next phase: international expansion.
Europe and the US in focus
Ryft plans to use the new funding to expand beyond the UK, with Europe and the United States identified as key markets.
The company has also applied for a full European Union payments licence through the Malta Financial Services Authority. If approved, the licence would allow Ryft to passport its services across the European Economic Area, potentially making it easier for the company to expand across multiple European markets.
That regulatory move is significant because payment companies cannot simply enter new markets without navigating financial regulations, licensing requirements and compliance obligations.
Ryft’s expansion strategy therefore involves both technology and infrastructure.
The company already works with major payments businesses including Global Payments, Visa, Mastercard and American Express.
Manchester’s fintech scene
Ryft’s latest funding also highlights Manchester’s position as one of Britain’s important technology and financial-services centres.
UK fintech investment has faced a difficult period, with industry data showing that investment fell to relatively low levels in the first half of 2026. Against that backdrop, a £20 million Series B represents a significant funding event for a British payments company.
For Ryft, however, the objective is not simply to raise more capital.
The company wants to take technology developed in Britain into larger international markets.
Its platform focuses particularly on marketplaces, franchises, platforms and businesses where money needs to move between several participants.
As commerce becomes increasingly platform-based, payment infrastructure is becoming more complicated. Companies selling products through marketplaces, creators operating digital businesses and platforms coordinating services can all require payment systems capable of distributing funds automatically.
That creates an opportunity for specialised payment infrastructure providers.
What comes next
Ryft’s latest investment will support international expansion, product development and the company’s broader ambition to become a significant payments infrastructure provider.
Its success will depend partly on whether it can reproduce the growth it has achieved in Britain while navigating the regulatory and competitive environments of Europe and the US.
For Manchester’s technology sector, the fundraising provides another example of a locally developed fintech attempting to compete beyond the UK.
And for Ryft itself, the message from the new funding is straightforward: the company believes its payment technology has reached a stage where it can move from being a UK-focused fintech to an international payments player.
