Global Fintech Interview with Sadra Hosseini, CEO at Ryft

Sadra Hosseini, CEO at Ryft shares the latest trends impacting the rapidly evolving fintech market in the UK and EUR region in this catch up with Global Fintech Series:

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Thanks for taking the time to chat with us Sadra, tell us about yourself and more about Ryft…

I’m Sadra, Co-founder and CEO of Ryft. Having previously built and scaled an Order & Pay platform, I learned firsthand the challenges that these types of marketplaces and digital platforms face when it comes to payments. In the Order & Pay business we were shocked by the lack of choice for us managing our payments. Existing providers were so expensive that we were unable to make enough margin when using them, and often they didn’t have the level of tech solution we needed to efficiently scale. Because of this challenge, we set out to create our own payments platform, which eventually evolved into Ryft. Three years later, we’re an FCA licensed payment processor working with some of the most exciting digital platforms in the industry, and we’re currently raising our Series A investment round to take the business to the next level.

Take us through Ryft’s newest partnership and how it enables end users?

The new partnership introduces a fresh approach for Clearhaus when serving Europe’s growing digital business sector, with thousands of underserved platforms and marketplaces seeking compliant transactions. Typically, creating such technology demands high costs, specialised teams, and intricate licensing. Through this collaboration, businesses can now process PSD2 compliant transactions, seizing opportunities for revenue growth and expansion. Ryft’s FCA license facilitates Clearhaus’s UK market entry post-Brexit, leveraging deep market knowledge. Clearhaus, recognized for its tech-forward stance, aligns with Ryft’s customer-centric ethos, making the partnership symbiotic, and the alliance will enable more digital platforms outside the UK to take advantage of Ryft’s payment capabilities.

What inspired Ryft and how is it unique?

Ryft was inspired by experiencing the challenges our merchants face first hand, in a previous marketplace business. We are unique in the sense that we are an agile, tech driven company, so we can be flexible in allowing our clients to create their perfect payment system, with a commercial proposal that allows them to also earn the right amount of margin. Unlike Ryft, we found that existing providers had a ‘one size fits all’ approach to marketplace payments, which had been causing inefficiencies for may merchants.

Can you share a few thoughts on the growing fintech market in the UK and EUR region: what are some of the fintech trends commanding the market here?

The Fintech market is one of the most exciting in the UK and Europe. I’d say being in embedded finance we are working in one of the biggest market shifts that has occurred over the last 10 years within Fintech. We are enabling software companies to become payment providers themselves, incorporating payments into their own offering. This complements their tech stack while generating an entirely new revenue stream. I think over the next 10 years we will see more and more software and digital businesses look to incorporate payments in this way.

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How are you seeing AI enhancements change the fintech game today? A few top AI features in fintech that have piqued your interest off late?

AI has sped up and enhanced automation of certain processes, especially in terms of onboarding and verification. We work with several partners that have leveraged AI to improve the time it takes us to onboard a new platform. We have also implemented machine learning in our fraud detection so we can quickly analyse large volumes of data.

This allows us to push above industry standard acceptance rates without risking a spike in fraudulent payments. AI has been incorporated into risk management platforms used by leading investment firms, and this use case could be interesting within the payment’s world as it could allow payment providers to continually manage risk and portfolios more effectively. Most due diligence and risk management in payments is done up front. If this was done on an ongoing basis, it could allow PSPs to take more risks, onboard different types of businesses and begin providing features like instant payouts to more merchants.

Five tips you’d share with upcoming fintechs before we wrap up?

1) Find the specific problems you solve and focus on those.

2) Find the markets where you add the most value and double down.

3) It’s better to do a handful of things really well than to try and do everything.

4) Make sure you understand and stay on top of regulations. Regulations pose opportunities as well as threats to Fintech businesses.

5) Always stay agile and be ready to change with the industry, and with the evolving needs of your clients.

Read More About Fintech Interviews: Global Fintech Interview with Kapil Kale, Co-founder and COO of Tremendous

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