Richard Carter, Founder of Lopay, pictured against the London skyline. — (Pictured right): Richard Carter, Founder of Lopay.

Instant payment startup secures £6m seed funding after signing up 20,000 SMEs

London based instant payment startup Lopay has secured £6m in seed funding from BackedVC, Portage, The Venture Collective and a series of high-profile angel investors.

Founded in January 2022 by Richard Carter, Lopay is a payment app that enables small businesses to take card payments from their customers for a fraction of the cost charged by the corporate payment providers. Lopay users also have the option to receive cleared funds into their bank account the instant a transaction is made.

Since launch, more than 20,000 small businesses across all sectors have signed up. Together they’ve used Lopay to take nearly 10 million customer payments. Lopay’s instant settlement and uniquely low fees, which are less than a third of those charged by PayPal and half those levied by SumUp and Zettle, have been central to its rapid growth.

Lopay estimates that its competitive pricing has saved merchants more than £1m in card fees since launch. The company expects to process a further £500m in card payments in the next 12 months, saving its customers as much as £2.6m in fees.

The brand’s pitch to small businesses, ‘keep more of the money you make’, has been championed by industry bodies including the National Federation of Builders.

Its successful funding round is all the more impressive as it comes amid a sharp slowdown in venture capital investment. Worldwide VC funding almost halved during the first six months of 2023, with investment in European start-ups plunging by 69%.1

Richard Carter, Founder of Lopay, commented: “Lopay’s mission has resonated with thousands of small businesses and sole traders who are being squeezed simultaneously by high inflation and fragile customer demand.

“Against that backdrop, the big beasts of the card payment industry have been poor champions of small business. Their high fees mean too many small firms are paying up to 300 per cent more than they need to, or waiting up to three business days, to receive card payments from their customers.

“By contrast, Lopay’s easy-to-use app and card reader give small businesses an instant way to save money on every sale they make. More than 20,000 firms have already found that switching to Lopay is a small step that makes a big difference to their bottom line, and that’s why several of the UK’s leading industry bodies have chosen to partner with us.

“Since launch we’ve focused on building robust financial architecture and hiring a talented, committed team. With this solid platform for growth, we’re now ready to scale - and we’ll be using this major injection of seed capital to launch internationally and develop new products that save small businesses even more money.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily