This collaboration underscores Ryft's significant influence on the pharmaceutical sector, providing independent pharmacies with innovative, flexible, and cost-effective payment solutions.

Charac, the fast-growing pharmaceutical app, streamlines operations for independent pharmacies across four key areas: repeat prescriptions, booking consultations, deliveries, and marketing, all through a single app or website. Through its partnership with Ryft, Charac now supports an automated end-to-end flow of funds, benefiting from Ryft’s PCI Level 1 and PSD2 gold standard compliance.

This partnership addresses a major issue in the pharmaceutical industry, where community pharmacies have faced significant cuts in government funding since 2016. With industry and NHS funding at an all-time low, pharmacies need to digitalise in the most cost-effective ways. Ryft’s integration into pharmaceutical apps at the point of service opens new revenue streams for independent community pharmacies and reduces processing fees by over 30%. By adopting Ryft’s marketplace payment platform, pharmacies can upgrade from legacy tech to the latest technologies, including ApplePay, GooglePay, and all major cards.

Additionally, Ryft stabilises the Charac payments model, overcoming the restrictive practices of previous payment suppliers who often off-board clients with minor risks. Ryft allows Charac to onboard community pharmacies at its discretion, using hosted onboarding to enable pharmacies to set up merchant accounts and start processing payments immediately. By leveraging modern payment technology through Ryft, community pharmacies can enhance their customer offerings and enjoy a seamless checkout experience at a competitive rate.

Speaking on the partnership, CEO and co-founder of Ryft, Sadra Hosseini, said: “ We’re extremely excited to be expanding our capabilities within the pharmaceutical industry, consolidating the wider impact we’re having across the sector, and alleviating some of the major issues independent community pharmacies have been facing for quite some time. Ryft prides itself on disrupting the industry and supporting key verticals who are underserved, yet want to upgrade their payments streams, so we’re delighted to be onboarding Charac as the next iteration of this mission.”

Also commenting on the partnership, Trevor Williams, Co-Founder and COO at Charac said: "Community pharmacies are currently struggling with an annual shortfall in funding totalling more than £750 million, which equates to around £66,000 per pharmacy. Our partnership with Ryft will help us tackle the financial issues that they face. By reducing their online processing fees by more than 30%, we can help them manage costs and utilise seamless up-to-date payment services.

“This is a vital step towards achieving our goal of making community pharmacies financially sustainable. By empowering pharmacies to digitalise, Charac saves essential time for pharmacists to focus on revenue-boosting services, such as Pharmacy First and New Medicine Service consultations, and more. We look forward to continuing to work with Ryft in modernising payment services for pharmacies, and ensuring they can run as cost-effectively as possible."