Railsr, the embedded finance platform, has today announced that it has been purchased and re-capitalised by a consortium, led by D Squared Capital, and that a change of control has been agreed with the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK. This ensures business continuity for Railsr's customers, and more than five million end-users. Railsr will remain headquartered in the City of London. 

Rick Haythornthwaite, Chair of the Board, commented: "We are absolutely delighted that Railsr is now able to rebuild momentum and return to growth. It is a business that deserved to be recapitalised. Railsr has a best-in-class technology platform that has already given hundreds of fintech customers competitive advantage. A huge number of people across the financial ecosystem believe in Railr's potential and have worked very hard to make this transaction a reality. We will now get back to basics and manage the business methodically and constructively. We have secured a new chapter for Railsr and are excited about what the future holds." 

Haythornthwaite will remain as Chair of the Board of Railsr, which is a leading embedded finance provider in Europe. Railsr’s customer base has remained extremely supportive throughout the M&A process. The company expects to be able to grow its customer base in the UK and Europe in the coming months.

Investor Quotes 

Dan Adler, Managing Director, D Squared Capital, commented: "Embedded finance has the potential to spur innovation, shape business models and shift consumer experiences. Railsr has the opportunity to maintain its position as the market leader in Europe and capture the ever-burgeoning embedded finance market opportunity. We're delighted to play a role in this pivotal moment for the company and its customers."

Meirav Har Noy, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Moneta VC, commented: "Railsr's customers, technology and people have always impressed me and so I have never stopped believing in Railsr. It is truly a global pioneer of embedded finance, operating at the very heart of London's innovative fintech scene. We know we need to work extremely hard to support our customers and navigate a fast-changing regulatory environment, but it's an exciting moment in time to ensure the business remains world-leading, in a market valued in the trillions. I can’t wait to seize the opportunities ahead of us.”

Mo El Husseiny, Founder of Ventura Capital commented: "Macroeconomic challenges aside, this action means we have successfully stabilised Railsr which operates systemic backbone infrastructure underpinning the UK financial system. This is good news for its customers and for the millions of end-connected users sitting atop the Railsr platform. Embedded finance is the future and its potential is huge. We are stepping into this future together with our trusted partners."

Background 

Railsr is the trading name for Embedded Finance Limited which will now operate Payrnet UK and Payrnet UAB, Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licensed businesses with the ability to clear Sterling on UK Faster Payments. 

Railsr is a Principal Visa and Mastercard issuer and provides banking-as-a-service and cards-as-a-service with offerings such as card issuing, virtual wallets and BIN sponsorship. The company's APIs make it easy for developers to integrate banking and card functionality into their products and services, and the Railsr platform is designed to be flexible and customisable to meet the specific needs of each customer. The platform allows customers to focus on their end-user-embedded finance experience while Railsr manages financial regulation, streamlined connectivity to popular payment schemes like SEPA, UKFP, BACs, and SWIFT and relentless improvement of customer operations.