Competing for a portion of the £5 million funding pot, the grant is designed to foster innovation. The competition was particularly high within this category, with only 8% of applicants receiving the funding they needed.

In addition to gaining access to the £5 million fund, Ryft and other successful applicants are also able to call upon the Innovate UK team for additional support, in terms of providing business development and direction.

Innovate UK is a national agency driving business growth and encouraging innovation across all UK regions. Through its various grants schemes, which include Horizon Europe, Energy Catalyst, and the Innovate UK Grant, businesses are able to develop their product and service portfolios in a way that supports rapid growth and business scaling across a variety of industries outside of financial services, including healthcare and aviation.

Ryft has grown exponentially throughout 2023, seeing figures rise by 300% across the business. To continue this trajectory and maximise innovation, Ryft will be using the grant to fund several areas of business growth, including expansion into the travel and events industries. To aid in this, Ryft will be expanding its technical team to bring new functionality to its existing product, allowing for expansion into new markets.

Traditionally, payments processing systems within the travel industry have been managed by manual, archaic systems, which are not conducive for modern transactions. Knowing the difficulties expressed by large travel merchants which the team is currently working with, Ryft is looking to fully automate payment flows within the travel industry, removing existing frictions and promoting ease of use.

Speaking on the grant, Founder and CEO of Ryft, Sadra Hosseini commented: “Following an extremely complex application process, we are delighted to have been awarded a portion of the Innovate UK grant for professional and financial services. This grant allows us to take the next steps towards expansion into new markets, where we feel Ryft will make a real improvement to the existing payment platform offerings available. We’re looking forward to growing our team, whilst building upon the current functionalities our merchants rely on in their everyday transactions.”

“We’d like to thank our advisors for recommending the grant to us and Innovate UK for supporting us on the next steps in our journey towards business growth and market expansion.”